Chapter 5: A New Beginning of an Old End (WC: 2453)
A/N:
Raj is gay confirmed
(keep this in the chapter, don't tell him i put it here - dylan)
Wtf - Raj
Chris wakes up, in his hospital bed. He looks around and sees Dylan and Raj next to him. He notices they're not strapped on the bed, relieving his worries a little bit. He sits up right on his bed and notices a man sitting in the corner of the room. Chris froze there, laying back down on the bed as the man kept looking at them. The man walks up to him, as he pulls a chair to sit next to Chris. Chris gets ready to fight the man, but is stopped.
"For your worries, we're not here to do any harm," the man says. "For now, rest until your other friends wake up."
Chris takes in the man's words, as he lays back and waits for the others to wake up. As time flies by, Raj and Dylan slowly wake up, and notice the changes in the enviroment. They see the man and get into a battle stance. Noticing this, Chris stops them and tells them to not worry. The man gets up, and walks in front of them all, clearing his throat to explain what's gonna happen.
"Congratulations on passing the test we set up, we just needed to see if you're capable. All you did back there was a test from us, so you don't have to be alarmed anymore," he says.
"First off, I want to know what your name is." Raj says accusatively, crossing his arms.
"Oh, my apologies. I am Notisho Yahle, a special agent," he explains.
"So you were testing our fighting reflexes to see what would happen, as well as our intelligence and teamwork abilities?" Dylan asks.
"Correct. There's an unusual relationship between the three of you, but it's truly astonishing seeing you all work so well together. Especially fighting Zukan, the Indefinite Fire of the League of Villains."
"League of Villains?" Chris askes.
"Yes, an evil organization of villains, obviously. Oh, I should explain what we do as an organization. I am from the organization CRACK. What the word CRACK means, in our case, is Covert Reinstitution of Antecedent Conventions' Kinship, or for short, CRACK."
"Hehe, crack," Raj giggles.
"Stop," Dylan orders.
"So what you do, and this is a guess: You deal with heroes that misuse their powers, and deliver the right justice in any means necessary?" Chris questions.
"You're not wrong, but we do deal with an occasional villain sometimes, you feel me?" he says.
"I feel you," Chris responds back.
"Raj, what the fuck is happening?" Dylan whispers to Raj.
"Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards," Raj whispers back.
"Well, that's basically everything explained to you, but I do have another thing that I need to explain that applies to all of you… even after everything that you've gone through. As a proposition, I offer you to be trained here as a CRACK member, and go up in the ranks," he explains.
"Um, can we discuss privately for a bit? I just want to hear opinions from my friends before deciding," Chris asks.
"No problem, I'll leave you to your discussions," the man says, as he gets up and leaves the room for a moment.
"Uh, so what are our thoughts on this?" Raj asks them.
"I mean, we got a lot of things going for us. We can do it with some help, plus we weren't strapped in this time. Besides, what he said explained pretty much everything," Dylan says.
"I mean, if you think about it- what if we're being used here, and he's just manipulating us? Chris counters.
"You got a point, but they're the only nice ones we met so far besides the barkeeper. It seems like a standard job, he takes us in, and we work for him… if that makes any sense?" Raj tries to counter back.
Chris thinks about it for a second, before ultimately deciding to side with them to be members of CRACK. Notisho comes walking back in as they were finishing discussing the pros and cons. Notisho pulls up a chair and discusses more about what will happen, giving them more reasons to choose to work with CRACK.
As he finishes the things that are required and gives when they join the organization, he puts his hand out in front of Chris. He looks at it, giving it some thought at first. Then reciprocates the gesture as they both grab each other's hand and shake. All three of the boys smiled, and they all stood up. Notisho leads the trio to where they'll be staying.
"Here are your rooms, and here are the keycards for all three. You can choose the rooms you'd like and are free to visit during non-work hours, if you choose to. For now, I'll leave you till you're ready," Notisho says as he leaves the only rooms in the building on the West Wing, 1st floor.
The three explore each of the rooms, as each one has a different basic layout, but all are barren with nothing except a bed. All of them take their time to decide which room they want. Eventually, they all pick, and gather to hangout in Chris's room. Chris leans against the wall, while Raj and Dylan sit, facing the bed.
"You know what we should do after some time? Renovate our rooms and such, it's a little barren," Raj suggests as they all vibe.
"Yeah, after some time. We can definitely do that some time in the future," Dylan responds.
"Why in the future, when we can do it right now!" Raj exclaims.
"And how exactly are we going to get the money?" Chris asks.
"Simple! We just ask that kind man who kidnapped us and brought us here!"
"You mean Notisho? ...you're joking, right?"
"Okay, I am. Kinda."
"Kinda?!"
"Look, we need to talk that guy into giving us an advance or something along the lines of that. Technically, we can't just join a job without any prior payment."
"So how exactly do we talk that guy into giving us some money? You and I both know that you don't have any negotiating skills."
"Oh I know, but he does."
Raj then points to Dylan, who immediately gets confused.
"Huh? Why is all the attention suddenly on me?" Dylan asks.
"Because you have the best smooth talking skills out of the three of us," Raj replies.
"Well, I know that, but-"
"Look, do you want to decorate our rooms or not?!"
"...yes, but-"
"THEN MOVE YOUR ASS AND GET TO SMOOTH TALKING!" Raj yells.
Silence fills the room after Raj practically shouts at Dylan.
"Looks like someone wants to decorate their room," Dylan says.
"He just wants to buy all the pink paint and Barbie dolls before they sell out," Chris sarcastically replies.
"Hey! I don't want girly stuff!" Raj says as he frantically tries to defend himself.
"Sure, you don't. Alright, let's get moving. We do need to decorate our rooms at least a little bit."
"Okay, but if the smooth talking doesn't go well, don't yell at me!" Dylan declares.
And with that, the trio get up to try and get Notisho to give them some money. They walk out of Chris's room and go looking around for him. After a bit, they find his office.
"Alright, this is it… let's hope this works," Raj says.
He gently opens the door to see-
"Hey guys! What can I do for you?" Notisho greets.
Raj then discreetly punches Dylan, as an indicator for him to start talking.
"Uh, hello sir… er… we just had a request for you…" Dylan nervously says.
"Oh? What is it?"
"We were wondering if… you could provide us some money for decorating our room… you see-"
"Sure! How does $500 for each of you sound?"
The trio are shocked, they didn't expect Notisho to accept that quickly.
"Hmm, you guys are silent, which means you don't like the offer… how does $600 sound?"
"N-no it's not like that! It's just that we were going to try and… persuade you to give us some money, but we didn't expect you to accept that quickly," Dylan quickly defends.
"We'll still take the $600 offer!" Raj chimes in.
The other two look at Raj in disbelief.
"Hahaha! You three really are best friends, huh? No worries, I'll still give you the $600. And to clear your doubt, I was going to give you guys money regardless, I know what it feels like to live in a plain and boring room. Trust me, it's not fun."
"T-thank you so much sir! But um… one small doubt." Dylan says.
"Yes, ask away."
"How are we going to receive the money?"
"Oh, that brings me to my next point!"
Notisho then pulls out three debit cards, each of them with the trio's names on it.
"Here! You three have company cards for you to use as you please. There's the starting $1000 for beginning employees, and I will add the $600 in a bit."
They each take their respective cards and look over it.
"How did you get our full names?" Raj asks.
"Come on, we're a government agency. You don't think the government doesn't have all your details?"
"Wait so, you have every single detail about us?"
"Yes…?"
The trio nervously looked at each other. How did they get their information?
"Is there a problem?"
"N-not at all! T-thank you for the cards!" Raj nervously replies.
"No problem! Now, consider this your day off, tomorrow you start your training."
"Yes sir!" all three of them say. They then leave Notisho's office.
"Alright, where to?" Dylan asks.
"Ooh, I wonder if they have an Ikea here! Maybe a Walmart, Target-"
Chris then smacks Raj's head.
"Dumbass! We're in a completely different place, how the hell do you know all those stores are here?!"
"Oh… right."
"Better yet, how are you gonna read anything here?!"
"With the power of tech- oh right, we don't have phones. Argh… why is this so hard?!"
"Okay, calm down Raj, we can just ask Notisho for some good places," Dylan says in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.
"Now that's a good idea," Chris says.
The trio then enter Notisho's office again.
"Ah, you three again! What brings you here this time?"
"We uh… we just wanted to know some good places to go shopping," Dylan asks.
"Oh! Well, for furniture there's your Ikea and Seiyu for normal groceries."
"Okay, thank you!"
The trio are about to leave when they are stopped by Notisho.
"Wait, I almost forgot. You need these."
He then hands each of them a cellphone.
"These are company provided cell phones, but they are also for personal use. They are already equipped with unlimited mobile data."
"Wow, thank you so much sir!"
"No problem! Now, go on now, you're losing daylight on your day off."
"Yes sir!"
The trio then exit the office and head outside to begin their shopping trip. Raj looks at Chris with a smug look, since he was just proven right.
"Okay okay, you're right. There is an Ikea here."
"What's Seiyu?" Dylan asks.
"It's basically a Japanese Walmart. Pretty sure they bought it as well," Raj replies.
"Wait, how do you know?"
"I'm a lot smarter than you think, Dylan."
"...no you're not."
"Yeah, you're right. I just knew about that one but because I saw a YouTube video about it."
"Just now?" Chris asks.
"No, a few months back, in our old world."
The three continue outside when they suddenly stop out the front gate.
"Hey, how do we get to the city? Walking is gonna take forever," Raj questions.
A car then suddenly pulls up in front of them.
"You guys need a ride?" the person in the driver's seat asks.
"And who are you supposed to be?" Chris asks.
"Here at CRACK, we give our employees private transportation."
"Like Uber?" Raj asks.
"You could say that. Now, are you gonna get in or not?"
"Sure, guys?" Raj says.
Raj doesn't get an answer, but the other two rush to the car.
"Hey wait! I call shotgun!" Raj calls out.
"Nu-uh! First come first serve!" Dylan replies, before getting in the front seat. Raj defeatedly enters the back seat, where Chris already was.
"Okay, where to?"
And thus, the shopping trip began. Finishing up, the boxes and boxes of furniture are ready to be assembled. Some months passed by, and as those months turned to years, the three trained under special Black OPs members, furthering their education and learning how to speak Japanese. Training intensely, slowly but surely raising up the ranks as they spend more of the years in Crack.
As the years went on, they went up the ranks. They started off at the Copper rank, and quickly went up to Bronze. After bronze they trained harder and harder and went up to Silver. After more tests, they ended up at Gold, where the trio and many other people reside. Ranking up from Gold was very difficult, as one needs to perform a great amount of work.
From Gold there is Platinum. Here are where the respected officers stand, and many of them retire at this stage. But the trio don't plan on stopping there. Above the Platinum rank stands the Diamond rank. Those who achieve this rank are the Elite rank force, and are only called for A - S level threats.
The highest rank is known as the X rank, or as it's more commonly known, the Eternals. Till this date, there have only been thirteen people who have achieved this prestigious rank. These officers are known for being able to take down rogues single handedly. They are considered to be the agency's super-agents
Sooner down the line, they were sent on missions together as a group. Their reputation grew in the organization, giving them unique titles. We go to Chris, who's on his bed listening to some music; his room is decorated now. Someone knocks, as Raj and Dylan walk in and sit in the extra chairs that he has.
"Hey, how was your solo mission?" Raj asks.
"Pretty easy, even if they attempted to run for it. Which they did," Chris responds.
"Hey you know what we should do now! We can go and eat at a restaurant, when was the last time we went to one?" Dylan asks.
"Ever since we got here, jesus. We can go now, if y'all down?" Chris realizes.
"Sounds good, let's go!" Raj says, as they all leave the room. The lights turn off, and they take off...