A group of people sat around a table, watching the video of Chris's interview, along with the video of the robbery and a few clips of what he'd done in the van. "How much do you think we can trust him?" One of the people asked, turning to Christine.

Christine hesitated. "I couldn't say… he didn't appear to be lying, but he could be a professional. The only thing is… based on the capabilities we've observed, it's unclear why he would need to lie to us. He should be capable of escaping at any time, yet… he doesn't. Maybe he truly is attempting to build good will, in case he needs to evacuate his people here like he said?"

"I think he's just messing with us." Another person grumbled. "He claims to be from Azza, a world based on a game! He's obviously trying to pull one over on us!"

"Why would he claim something that anyone would think was fake?!?" Someone else chimed in.

"Because he has no respect for us!" The other retorted. "Since the first interaction, he's been blatantly dismissive, treating our people like air! He's simply seen an opportunity to fuck with the lower lifeforms!" They growled through gritted teeth.

"I don't believe that's the case." Christine interjected. "In my interactions with him, he didn't come off so much as dismissive as he did apathetic. Possibly even bored. If he was trying to mess with us, he should have been more… involved. Instead, he hardly seemed to care whether we believed him or not."

"You can't seriously believe he's from Azza!" They scoffed.

"Why not?" Another retorted. "Is that as strange as beings from another world kidnapping our people, seemingly at random? At least the existence of Azza as a real place could explain part of it. They do have access to abilities, which genetics play a role in, as he said."

"But it's a game!" They exclaimed in frustration.

"With all the games, books, movies, and shows out there, and given the existence of other worlds, is it so far-fetched to believe one might be real?" The other replied.

"Enough!" A man who seemed to be in charge demanded. "We will believe his claims, for now. In the meantime, we need to determine the exact nature of this ability of his, how it works, and how we can detect, or even prevent, its use. We will keep him under constant observation using every method we can. Agent Harris, find ways to encourage him to use his ability. Additionally, press him for more details about his world. If he is lying, at some point he'll slip up. If not… we need all the information we can get. We cannot continue to let these beings act within our world unopposed!"

Chris frowned as he realized he kept getting stuck places. As he continued to use his other selves to explore, he kept finding places he needed to actually maintain a presence in. Obviously he had to keep one of his selves around for practical exercises, since that was where he was originally supposed to be, plus he would always keep a self close to Beth. That was just the basics. Then he'd found the game, and he had to keep playing that in order to find more information on what had happened there, and what might happen on Azza. And now he was dealing with these people who seemed to want something from him, but refused to actually tell him what it was! Sure, he could leave at any point, but they seemed to have some authority on Earth and he didn't want to collapse any tunnels for no reason.

All this meant that he now had to constantly maintain three selves! And it wasn't like those three selves were doing anything exciting either! Mostly they were just… waiting around. It was frustrating. Particularly since it gave Chris the urge to go out and find something interesting to do, which he knew would only end up getting yet another self stuck doing something boring! No, he needed to figure out a way to entertain himself with what he already had. Like this book. This boring, boring book. Chris sighed as he tossed the book away. It wasn't that the book was actually boring, he just couldn't get into it. He was in that state where he knew he wanted to do something, but he couldn't figure out what. He kinda wanted to talk to Beth, but his other self was already doing that. He kinda wanted to play the game, but he already had a self doing that as well! He could probably interact with his subordinates more, but that would require him to leave, which he couldn't do.

Chris paused. Was that his issue? The fact that this self was literally stuck here, waiting for something to happen? It was like… the idea that he was trapped here made anything he could do here completely unappealing. All he wanted to do was not be here. Chris frowned for a moment, before shrugging and getting to his feet. "Fuck it." He headed to the door, quickly figured out it was locked, rolled his eyes and disappeared, reappearing on the other side. "Hey, I'm taking a walk. Come with me or don't, your call." Chris told the stunned guards, before walking off.

"S-sir- Sir! You can't leave until Agent Harris clears you!" One of the guards exclaimed, rushing after him.

"Can't is a strong word." Chris replied, pausing to turn back and level a look at the guard. "You're welcome to try and stop me, but you will fail. Better to just follow and keep an eye on me." Chris continued, before turning and continuing down the hall. The guards glanced at each other hesitantly, before nodding and quickly following Chris, falling into step behind him once they caught up, one of them speaking into his radio to inform a higher up of the situation.

Chris hadn't even found the exit yet when Christine literally sprinted towards him, coming to a stop in front of him and panting breathlessly. "Chris! You- we still have things to discuss with you before you leave!" She gasped.

"Oh, I'm not leaving leaving. I'm just taking a walk." Chris explained. "I'm bored, and I hate being trapped somewhere, so I figured I'd explore a little. See a bit more of this world of yours."

Christine hesitated, quickly trying to figure out some way to keep Chris here without offending him and making him leave for good, and coming up empty. "At- at least let me arrange a proper escort for you!" She pleaded with a hint of desperation in her voice.

"Eh, they can catch up." Chris waved her off dismissively. He wasn't too concerned about whatever goons and babysitters they'd try to saddle him with, and he definitely wasn't worried about his own safety. Still, by the time he'd passed through a few checkpoints and finally gotten to the exit, Christine had made a few calls and several large men in suits were accompanying them, the original guards long gone. "See, told you they could catch up." Chris commented, grinning at Christine slightly as she simply scowled at him.

Chris made sure to leave a portal point by the building's exit as he walked out, pausing to take a look around. He was surrounded by tall buildings stretching into the sky, every building at least three stories, most more than five, and he occasionally caught glimpses of even taller buildings in the distance. "Huh… you guys like to build tall, don't you?" He asked, glancing towards Christine. The space limitations of the City meant buildings rarely went over two stories, and they never hit five or you'd end up in the ceiling.

Christine looked around, frowning slightly. Were these buildings tall? Nothing here was even over ten stories. You couldn't even call them skyscrapers! If Chris thought this was big, he'd be in for a surprise if he ever saw New York City. "We… like to make the most of our space." She eventually replied, trying not to make him feel like some kind of bumpkin.

Chris frowned. "Why?"

Christine paused. "Why?" She repeated, confused. Why wouldn't they try to make the most of their space?

"You aren't exactly hurting for real estate." Chris pointed out. "Why make everything so big instead of spreading out a little more? I mean, you don't even have space for grass here, let alone trees!"

Christine blinked. "We don't want to ruin the environment?" She offered hesitantly. "Forests and wild areas need to be protected?"

Chris frowned. "Wait, so because you love nature so much, you decided to create places where nature can't exist, so that nature can flourish elsewhere? You do realize that you could just live in nature right? Literally, just spread all these buildings out by an extra like… five to ten meters, plant some grass and trees and crap, and boom, best of both worlds."

"But what about animals?" Christine added. "They wouldn't be able to survive in that little space. They need large stretches of untamed wilderness to live."

Chris blinked. "Oh, right, animals… forgot about those… Even so, the extra space wouldn't add too much area, maybe double or triple what you have now? You could still have a bunch of forests and shit for the animals."

Christine shook her head. "It isn't just about leaving space for nature. It's also about convenience. When everything is closer together, you have more available to you in a smaller area. Instead of needing to drive fifteen minutes to get to a store to buy groceries, you could simply walk around the corner. Everything you want is literally right there for you."

Chris raised an eyebrow at her. "I feel like you can do that and still have some green in your life." The City managed to keep things close and convenient without getting rid of all the green. Admittedly, a part of that was the verticality of it. As long as you weren't trying to go from the bottom of the City to the top, the lifts were pretty quick, so a short ride up or down wasn't that big a deal. Chris tried to picture a scenario where he'd have to get all the way through a level to get to another level… huh, that would be more inconvenient. Still, each level was fairly self contained, so you never needed to go to another. You only had to go to another level if you wanted something special, like to go to an amusement park, or the lake. Chris considered it a bit longer, before sighing and shaking his head. It wasn't his place to judge how others lived, particularly when he was looking at it from an outside perspective. Who was he to say that green was more important than convenience? The only reason he valued it was because green was hard to find in the City, while convenience was everywhere. He'd never tried it from the other side.

Chris began walking along the sidewalk, Christine and the guards following as he wandered along, checking out what this place had to offer. In a lot of ways, it reminded him of the City. Plenty of shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues lining the street, and people everywhere. It was a bit more cramped, and they had a lot more roads and cars, but overall it seemed like a nice place. Particularly without that damn sun shining down on them. Dark gray clouds had covered it, giving them a reprieve from the blinding ball of fire, which Chris was more than happy for. The sun had given him a whole new appreciation for the gentle lights of the City, providing all the necessary illumination and health benefits without trying to blind you all the time. Plus it didn't help that he could literally feel his skin burning every time it was out.

Chris suddenly paused as he sniffed the air, smelling a pleasant, hunger inducing aroma in the air. He followed his nose, walking a few streets down and finding what looked like a fast food restaurant. He glanced at the sign, narrowing his eyes. "What's panda?" He asked, turning to Christine. Whatever it was, it looked like people wanted it, and apparently they wanted it pretty fast. It certainly smelled good.

"It's a type of bear." Christine explained.

Chris nodded. "Is it good?"

Christine blinked. "Uh… oh! No, no, it's just a name! They don't actually serve panda, it's just Asian. It's still chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, stuff like that."

"Ah, pity." Chris shrugged. "Still smells good though. Buy me some." He waved for her to follow, walking into the restaurant. He got into line, waiting patiently with his escort, ignoring the weird looks practically everyone was giving him.

A little girl suddenly ran up to him. "Are you famous?" She asked curiously.

Chris cocked his head at her, grinning slightly. "If I was, don't you think you'd know?"

"Not if I don't know who you are!" The little girl retorted.

"If you don't know who I am, am I really all that famous?" Chris replied, his grin widening.

The little girl paused, considering that for a bit. "I guess not… but then why do you have bodyguards and an assistant?" She asked, pointing towards Chris's escort.

Chris raised an eyebrow at her. "Is that what you think they are? No, these people are my babysitters."

The little girl's eyes widened. "You have babysitters?!? But… you're old!"

"I know! But they seem to think that I'll cause trouble if I'm left alone." Chris sighed, shaking his head.

"Chris, please stop indulging the child." Christine frowned, turning to the little girl. "Where are your parents?" The little girl pointed towards a stressed looking couple with several other kids, who hadn't seemed to even realize she was missing yet. "How about you get back to them, huh? You don't want them to worry, do you?" The little girl shook her head, before running back to her family.

Chris clicked his tongue. "It isn't good to be rude to children, Christine. They are the future."

Christine scowled at him. "Children shouldn't be comfortable talking to random strangers. That's how they get hurt."

Chris cocked an eyebrow at her. "Who would hurt a child?"

Christine blinked at him. "A- there are kidnappers, predators, murderers… the world is dangerous and children are fragile!"

"But the consequences… Who would risk-" Chris paused, narrowing his eyes. "Wait, what do you guys do to people who hurt kids?"

"We send them to prison?" Christine replied hesitantly.

"Ah, good." Chris nodded. "So why would anyone do anything to a child then? Just not worth it."

"Who knows what goes on in the minds of criminals? They think they can get away with it, they think it's worth the risk, or maybe they just don't consider prison all that bad." Christine shrugged helplessly.

"They-" Chris began incredulously, before pausing. Wait… this world didn't have abilities. Which meant it was harder to catch people who did wrong… plus it was unlikely that their prisons involved putting the prisoners into psychically induced comas that would replay their worst nightmare over and over. He went over Anthony's memories again. Yup. Prison was much different here. "Okay, yeah, I can see that. Kinda depressing, but I guess that's life." Chris sighed.

"H-Hello, can I take your order?" The attendant asked nervously as they reached the front of the line, looking intimidated by the whole escort following Chris.

"Yeah, can I get one of everything?" Chris asked.

"You do not need that much food." Christine warned him with a frown.

"But I want that much food." Chris retorted.

"There is no way you can eat that much!" Christine snapped.

"Some things aren't about eating!" Chris countered.

"It's food! That's its purpose!" Christine replied in a frustrated tone.

Chris let out a weary sigh. "Just buy the damn food, alright?" Christine grimaced, before clicking her tongue and gesturing for the attendant to do as Chris asked.

The attendant hesitated, looking between the two of them hesitantly, before beginning to stuff food into small boxes, another attendant ringing up the order. Chris handed the boxes to the guards while Christine paid, taking a large cup as well. He quietly opened a portal inside the cup, sending a small amount of each drink into the Immortal World, before leaving. "Alright, give me the boxes." Chris waved to the guards, dropping them into the Immortal World through the portal in the cup and dissolving them.

"What are you doing?" Christine asked, confused as box after box disappeared.

"I'm analyzing the food so I can make it again later." Chris explained.

Christine blinked. "You can do that?"

"I can do a lot of things." Chris shrugged, making a box of the orange chicken appear in his hand, along with a fork, taking a bite. "Shit, this is good!" Chris grunted, quickly eating more.

Christine hesitated, before leaning closer. "How- how does your ability work?" Chris clicked his tongue, briefly replacing the fork in his hand with a small card and handing it to Christine before getting back to eating. He wasn't about to explain all that nonsense again. Christine frowned as she took the card, carefully scanning it, her eyes slowly widening as she read through everything Chris was capable of. Slowly she began to inch further and further away from him. They'd gotten this wrong. They'd gotten this so, so wrong! They shouldn't be worried about Chris leaving, they should be worried he'd want to stay! If he decided he wanted their world… Christine gulped as she glanced at Chris happily eating his meal. No wonder he didn't seem to care about anything they did.

Chris suddenly paused as a drop of water hit him, frowning. "What was that?" Chris muttered, looking around. There shouldn't be water coming from anywhere around here… no pipes or hoses or anything. A few more drops hit him, before suddenly water began to pour out of the sky! "What the fu-! Oh, right, rain." Chris suddenly remembered that particular feature of surface living. He was beginning to come to the conclusion that the sky was a menace. Much better to just live underground. "Fuck, how do you guys deal with this shit?" He cursed, tempted to open a portal over his head to handle this crap, when one of the guards pulled out an umbrella and held it up for him. "Ah, thank you." He paused. "The sky sucks by the way."

Christine blinked. "You- you really are from Azza, aren't you?"

"Yeah? Why would I lie?" Chris replied, raising an eyebrow at her. Christine shuddered. Why would he lie? If this card was accurate… unless the card was a lie… she needed to talk to her superiors about this.