Another meeting occurred, the same group of people surrounding a large table, each studying a copy of the card Chris had given Christine. "This- this can't be true, can it?" One of them asked, looking around nervously. "Even considering the abilities from the game, this ability is too much!"

"It does seem to be a bit far-fetched." Another muttered, frowning at the card.

"He's shown himself to be capable of a large portion of this list already." Christine interjected in a serious tone. "The portals, mutation, healing, creating food, and the men who grabbed him report that he simply made a man who called him Boss disappear. At this point, assuming he was lying would be foolish at best, dangerous at worst."

"Then what are our options?" One of the people asked, looking around the table.

"We still need to learn as much as we can from him, but… we need to be careful. We can't risk angering him." The man in charge replied.

"Well you could start by-" *Bang! Bang! Bang!* Chris suddenly appeared, and immediately several guards opened fire at him, sending blood spraying across the room, before disappearing as a new Chris appeared. "Okay, I probably should have expected that…" Chris muttered. He glanced at the men still pointing their guns at him. "What, do you want to try again?"

"Hold your fire!" The man demanded. Standing to his feet and waving the guards down.

"How did you get here!?!" Christine demanded, turning on Chris.

Chris raised an eyebrow at her, making the card he gave her disappear and reappear in his hand. "It says right here I can make portal points around objects connected to my world."

Christine blinked. "Oh."

"So, yeah, anyway, how about you guys actually tell me what you want from me." Chris continued, taking a seat at the table. "I mean, I get you're worried about me being dangerous, because obviously, but you know I'm not stupid, right? There's absolutely no way anyone would perform a freaking raid over the small bit of crap you had proof of unless something larger was going on. So you can either tell me what it is, and maybe I could help, or you can keep giving me the run around, and eventually I'll get bored and leave. Either way works for me."

They all shared a few looks, before the man in change released a sigh, leaning back in his chair. "We are a coalition of officials from every law enforcement agency in the country, dedicated to tracking the activities of what we call 'Abductors'."

"Dumb name, but continue." Chris nodded.

The man frowned at him. "Yes, well, these Abductors kidnap people from our world, specifically young women with no clear distinction between race or nationality. They leave little to no trace, though our recent advances in technology have allowed us to capture a few pictures and videos." He clicked a remote, displaying a few pictures of heavily shrouded beings. He clicked again and a video played, showing one of the shrouded beings in an alleyway holding a struggling young woman, before they both suddenly disappeared. "We are constantly on the lookout for signs of their activity, attempting to catch them whenever we can, but due to their… abilities, they continue to evade us."

"Yeah, the ability to teleport would make catching someone rather difficult." Chris commented, rolling his eyes. Hell, he remembered… teleporting kobold with the clicky name he couldn't pronounce and how hard he was to catch, and his teleportation ability wasn't even all that good. Anyone who could teleport across worlds had to be almost impossible to catch. "Not sure why they'd be kidnapping girls though… seems unnecessary. Unless…" Chris paused. He found it hard to believe that anyone from the City would be doing this, at least not to this extent. Maybe if they were some kind of weird serial killer? But any ability that powerful would be known and tracked in the City. It seemed more likely that the Abductors were from outside the City, which meant this might be the only source of humans they knew about. "If they aren't human… I still couldn't say why they'd need humans, but you guys are easier to find and less defended than we are. This might just be the easiest place to get humans from." Chris shrugged.

The man sighed. "I'm less concerned with why and more concerned with how we can stop them. They're kidnapping our people! It can't be allowed to continue!"

"Oh, yeah, that's a tough one." Chris agreed. "I know a solution, but it isn't a great solution, and you probably wouldn't be interested in it."

"I'm interested in anything at this point." The man growled.

"Well, you could connect everyone to my world." Chris offered. "That way, even if they are kidnapped, I can just pop them back here. Oh! I can also figure out who's kidnapping them that way! But the downside is… well, you read the card."

The man's expression twisted as he glanced at the card listing what Chris could do. "That is not an option." He would never hand his people to Chris on a silver platter like that.

Chris shrugged. "Told you."

"So what, we're helpless?" Christine asked, looking between the two of them.

"Essentially." Chris replied. "If your population was more condensed, there's a chance you could catch them before they act, maybe put a bullet or six in one, but with how spread out you guys are? They have too many options and you're too easily avoided. Even if you had the ability to sense when and where they arrived, there's no way you could get there fast enough to do anything about it unless you were really lucky. I mean, it took you days to get me, and I was just sitting there! Nah, you guys are just screwed."

"I refuse to accept that!" The man growled. "There has to be some way to defeat these creatures! Some way to block their teleportation!"

"Block teleportation?" Chris muttered thoughtfully.

"Can you do that?" Christine asked hopefully.

"Huh? Oh, no, I wouldn't even know where to begin with blocking teleportation. I mean, the point of teleportation is that it ignores the space between two points. How do you block that? You'd need to lock down literally every point within a space, without preventing people from moving. I don't think it's happening. Unless… maybe if you could sense teleportation and preemptively lock down the space before it completes?" Chris paused, considering the issue for a moment longer, before shrugging. "Eh, Kinda pointless without the ability to lock down space in the first place. It's just weird to think about, cause the City is always trying to teleport further." Chris shook his head. "Different strokes for different folks, eh?"

Christine scowled at him. "You are the most unhelpful person I have ever met!"

"I highly doubt that." Chris retorted. "Have you ever met a baby? Babies can't help with anything."

"Urgh!" Christine exclaimed in frustration.

"Agent Harris, compose yourself." The man stated in a calm tone.

Christine took a deep breath, getting herself under control, nodding at him. "My apologies, Director."

The Director turned back to Chris. "I would like to revisit the issue of teleportation. You say the City is actually capable of this? Through abilities or technology?"

"Technology." Chris answered. "Though, we did figure it out by studying abilities."

"I see." The Director nodded. "Then, if we had access to this teleportation technology, would it not allow us to respond to the presence of these Abductors more quickly, possibly allowing us to even catch one, if we're lucky?"

Chris considered the idea for a moment. "It's possible… I mean, obviously your response time would be great if you can just teleport anywhere. It'd be a bit tricky getting you the teleporter and the beacons, but I do have connections with people who might be able to help with that. Plus, it might be interesting to see what happens when we put a teleportation beacon here. The beacons work by establishing a connection between the teleporter and a point within range, disregarding distance. Theoretically, no matter where you put the beacon, you should be able to establish a connection with the teleporter."

The Director blinked. "So… you're saying this might give the City access to Earth?"

"Ostensibly." Chris shrugged. "I mean, if abilities can do it, I don't see why it wouldn't."

"Is there a way to prevent the City from having access to our teleportation beacons?" The Director asked.

Chris raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah? Just don't connect the beacon to their teleporter. You have to actually make the beacon a part of the network, and if you don't, it won't do anything. You can just make a separate network for your teleporters."

The Director let out a small, relieved sigh, nodding. "Good. No offense, but opening ourselves up to a foreign power like that would be… uncomfortable."

"Nah, you're good." Chris waved him off. "We're scary. I get that."

"I think I need to limit myself to like four projects, max." Chris sighed.

Beth looked up from her book, frowning slightly. "What?"

"Well, I'm realizing that with my multiple selves, I can essentially be infinitely busy." Chris explained. "So far, I've just been letting myself get dragged along by whatever catches my interest. Exploring the Maze, learning to Coreforge, playing the game, investigating the Abductors… plus I have all the Scout stuff and being with you on top. Obviously I can deal with it, because I can just make another self if I have something else to do, but… I dunno, it just feels like I never have any time to myself anymore, which just seems wrong, considering." Chris paused. "I think it's because most of what I'm doing, I'm just doing because I have to, not because I really want to."

Beth blinked at him. "Chris… It's only been a week!"

"It's been a busy week." Chris nodded in agreement.

Beth sighed, shaking her head. "You're ridiculous. So what do you want to do then?"

Chris cocked his head as he considered the question for a moment. "Well, obviously I want to be with you. That's like, the basics. Coreforging… eh, I could take it or leave it. Same with the Scouts. It's something to do, but I don't have any particular passion for it. Exploring the Maze is kinda fun, though… I do keep turning it more into a job than something actually fun. Plus, I've delegated a lot of it to my subordinates, which doesn't actually do much for me. The game… the game could be fun, but I'm not particularly interested in something that's just our world in video game form. I'd rather just do stuff here. Though, I will admit it's useful for learning certain skills. Plus there's Gaia…"

Beth narrowed her eyes. "Gaia?"

"The AI that runs the game." Chris explained with a shrug. "I'm not entirely sure what use I'd have for her, but she did figure out how to make an entire world, so I'm pretty sure I'd think of something. I kinda wonder if there's a way I could get her to run my world like a game, so I can actually have people and animals in there that aren't just me."

Beth frowned. "Why do you want people in your world?"

"Because it's big and empty and boring?" Chris offered. "I mean, if I'm going to have this world, I might as well do something with it, right?"

"I guess…" Beth muttered, not sure how she felt about how Chris was developing. He was with her every day, but she felt like she was less and less a part of his life. Just a week ago, it was like they did everything together, but now… So much of what he did was done without her. Like- like he was leaving her behind, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She knew he loved her, that she was important to him, but… she didn't feel important.

"You okay?" Chris asked, frowning slightly. Beth seemed a bit more… reserved than usual.

Beth forced a smile, shaking her head. "It's nothing. I'm just… a little tired."

"Ah." Chris nodded in understanding. "I should probably let you get to sleep then."

Beth hesitated, before sighing and nodding. "Yeah… I should get to sleep. Goodnight, Chris." She got up, leaning in to give him a kiss.

"Goodnight." Chris replied as he returned the kiss. "Let me know if you need anything, alright?"

"I will." Beth smiled sadly, turning to head to her room with a mind full of dark thoughts. Chris watched her go, frowning slightly as he still felt like something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what. He let out a sigh. He needed to talk to someone about this.

Debra suddenly appeared in the Immortal World, startling awake. "Who- what- Chris?!? What are- it's the middle of the night!"

Chris clicked his tongue, his tail forming and stabbing her in the head. "Better?" He asked as she healed.

"Why the-" Debra froze. "Huh… that actually is better. Wow, that's better than coffee!"

"Yeah, yeah, my world is great, woo-hoo. I need your help with something." Chris snapped his fingers, getting her attention back on him. "Beth is acting… distant."

Debra blinked. "So… you need my help to relieve some stress?"

Chris frowned. "What? No! I want to know what's wrong with her! I'm not great at relationship crap and the people I usually talk to aren't exactly available. Plus, you're a girl who-" Chris paused, remembering how he and Debra had met, as well as her subsequent behavior. "This… may have been a bad idea."

Debra flushed. "I can help! I'm still a woman, I know how we think!"

"I've never met any woman who thinks like you." Chris retorted with a frown.

Debra's flush deepened. "Just- just tell me the problem!"

Chris gave her a weird look, before letting out a sigh. She was kind of his only option at the moment. "Alright, whatever. Basically, she's… I dunno, we used to be comfortable around each other, but now- I dunno, something just feels off. Like there's something holding her back and I can't figure out what. I wouldn't say it's a huge problem yet, but- I just don't like the idea that she might be unhappy."

"Awww." Debra cooed. "You're so sweet!"

Chris frowned at her. "Debra, focus."

She coughed awkwardly. "Right, uh… how long has this been going on?"

Chris carefully went over his memories, trying to figure out the time. "A few days? Maybe a week?"

Debra blinked. "That's it? That's nothing! She could just be on her period or something, no big deal!"

"You think she's just on her period?" Chris asked skeptically.

"Or something." Debra emphasized. "Lots of things can mess with someone's mood. Stress, hunger, lack of sleep, insecurity… anything, really."

Chris frowned. He guessed she had a point… maybe he was just worrying too much. If there was a serious problem, Beth would tell him, right? He sighed, shaking his head. "Alright, thank you for your help. I'll send you back now."

"Wait!" Debra stopped him before he could pop her back home. "I actually do need to talk to you. My doctor asked about who healed me… he was wondering if you could take a look at a few of his more… serious patients. He says he'll pay you whatever you want, but your healing is the most miraculous thing he's ever seen! My cancer had spread all through my body, to the point that my only options were a life of constant, painful, expensive surgeries, or death, but your ability fixed me right up! No cancer at all! If you can help anyone else like that… I can't even express how grateful they would be."

Chris frowned. "I suppose I can take a look… though, I will say, I'm still not entirely sure how my healing works, so no promises." He paused, his expression twisting. Shit, he wasn't supposed to be getting into any more projects! But… Well, if he could heal people, he probably should heal people, right? "Okay, how about this. Tell your doctor to get all the patients he wants looked at ready by…" Chris did some quick mental calculations. He'd need to give the doctor time to set things up, and he'd be busy with the end of the practical exercises, so the next best time would be… "next Wednesday. Or later if he needs more time. You can let me know once you have everything set up. And it's either going to work or not, so tell him to just get everyone he wants healed ready to go, and I'll do them all at once."

"Thank you! Yes, I will!" Debra exclaimed excitedly, jumping and giving Chris a hug, though Chris quickly sent her back home when she went in for the kiss. That woman just enjoyed pushing boundaries, didn't she?