Chapter 4(Sam): Welcome to New Min

Everything seemed fine when we were about to go into the building with the portal but before we could Lee started to get a massive headache to the point he could barely stand

"Lee, are you okay?" I started to support him so he could stand and Kenneth followed suit

"I..I'm fine" He attempted to hide it, but the pain on his face was enough reason to not believe him

"Hey now...are you alright?" Neal came over, me and Kenneth sat Lee against the wall, Neal sat down beside him, taking some blood and putting it in the hud we have. Our confusion must've been apparent as he looked over to us, because he began to give a watered version of the explanation "You can put stuff in your hud, it gets full power and it can be used, neat right?"

"Cool!" I was excited, that was useful in many ways for me

"Well, just wait for me a bit, I have to go grab something" After Neal put Lee's blood in his hud, he ran off

"So he has an inspection kit for blood but not any medicine whatsoever?" Nicholai crossed her arms and sat against the wall, she annoyed me at times, but she's beginning to become tolerable. Kenneth sat beside Lee before speaking

"I mean, it's kinda understandable" He pulled up his hud before looking around it and finding the "Inventory" system "Yeah, you can't hold infinitely, there's a limit to how much you can have, so you don't wanna bring useless medicine around" I was more curious about the TTS if anything, Kenneth and Nicholai have used it a few times but I wanted to give it a go, I wanted to, but then Lee's head would probably explo-

New message(1)

I was stopped from thinking and sent a message, I resummoned my hud and looked at it

_______

Does Lee seem off to anyone else?
Recipients: Sam,Kenneth,Kyle,Kayla,Matt,Nicholai

Wow, this thing is useful, anyways, I wanted
to talk with everyone, I know it's only
been a day or two so maybe he's still
adjusting, but a nearly paralyzing headache?
Am I the only one who wants to know why?
-Nicholai

I can see where you're coming from, Lee
does seem off somehow - Matt

Is his weirdness that noticeable? I
haven't noticed at all!-Sam

Maybe it's just because we used our powers on him,
he did get flung through a tree as well - Kenneth

______

"Uhh, my head feels like it's on fire!" Lee's pain died down a bit, it was a miracle though, that it hadn't started dishing damage

"Are you alright yet? We don't have to go now" I stood in front of him, offering a hand.

"I should be fine, I have to push forward no matter what" Lee grabbed my hand and I pulled him up.

"Here Lee" Neal came up to us and handed Lee something

"What is this?" Lee looked at it as did the rest of us

"Medicine, some people have issues with their powers so don't worry too much, just bite off the top part and drink it" Lee followed Neal's instructions, biting off the top and drinking the medicine

"Urgh, it tastes horrid" He looked close to throwing up "But, my headache is gone, so I guess it's fine" He stood back up "Next time Sam and Kenneth, just leave me down if you're gonna pick me up

"Hehe, sorry about that" I felt bad a bit, me and Kenneth lifted him up only to put him down again and make the headache worse.

"No worries, so, shall we be heading out?" Everyone looked at him, questioning his sanity

"You just had a massive headache, maybe going isn't a great idea" Neal tried convincing him to stay

"No, I'll be fine, I mean it" I didn't want him to, but if he really wanted to join us then I wouldn't push the issue further

"Fine...if that's what you want"

"And it is" He readjusted his hat and turned the corner. The rest of us joined him and once we turned the corner we were greeted with a massive portal

"Welcome to the teleportation room, veteran or highly trained DTs don't need this room, but it helps newer recruits with teleportation, highly trained DTs also can use this to save their energy but it's not mandatory" Neal, with a smile, explained the area "By the way, if it wasn't obvious, I'll be your handler, I'll give you information about enemies and allies alike, and give you your missions as well, of course if any one of you want to take my position you're more than welcome to do so" Nicholai wanted to speak up, she probably didn't want to fight, so she wanted to be the handler, but even I can realize that she wouldn't be good at it.

"So, how does it work?" Kyle leaned against a wall while facing Neal to wait for a response

"Easy, either we set the location or if you're not on a mission and just want to travel, you just think of the area" Neal once again smiled

"You're smiling a lot, did you make this yourself?"

"Good thinking Sam, Yes, I did, and I made it recently too, about 2 months ago, so I still feel glad when I'm around it" I couldn't blame him, I mean, even if they're a DT making something like this is amazing

"Well, I'll see you all there" We all walked to the portal and we began to notice even more portals on the sides of the room with other people entering them. When we all stood in front of the portal I waved at Neal to say goodbye, and the next thing I knew we were transported.

New Min Dimension

It was weird being teleported, it felt dark and cold and yet I could still see letters telling me where I was going, after a few seconds a bright light shined in my eyes and the next thing I noticed, was that I was on really soft grass upon a small hill

"God....that hurt" I heard Lee's voice from a distance after a thud sounded. I put my hands on the grass and stood myself up

"My head....it feels messed up..."I grabbed my head, it felt fuzzy

"Hey, you didn't land in a tree" Nicholai and Kenneth appeared from the bottom of the hill covered in leaves and small sticks "Luckily I didn't break a bone, though it feels like my limbs wanna explode" Even though Kenneth said that he still double-checked, touching his limbs and head to check for cuts

"Seems you two got the short end of the straw" Kyle, Kayla, and Matt appeared from the opposite side of the hill "We've got luck on our side" Kyle motioned to all of us except for Kenneth and Nicholai

"Hey! Don't jinx us, I bet you're gonna land in the worst possible spot next" Matt stretched then began to look around "So...where are we meant to go? I don't see any hideout"

TTS

Neal-"Hello everyone" An icon of his face popped up in the corner of his face startling everyone "Sorry, sorry, I know that must've been surprised, after all, you've talked with people who didn't have a profile pic so nothing popped up, blatantly stating, you guys should put pics of your face so people don't have to rely on your voice to know who you are"

Matt-"And then Scare others?"

Neal-"....it is fun though.....Regardless, you guys don't really have much of a mission for today, for now just reach the hideout and put your things there, then take a look around the world, you'll probably be here a lot in your first few months"

Kyle-"Great, so we won't be seeing anything new for a while"

Neal-"Now now, I never said that, I meant this is where you'll be returning to often, you'll most likely be on different missions in different dimensions, after all, while I did say veterans can use the portal room, I don't want people to depend on it"

Kyle-"I get it now, alright, as long as I don't have to be in the same area for a month I'll be fine"

Neal-"Of course, seeing and doing the same thing over and over again is painful, I wouldn't do that to anyone, so, I hope you all get accustomed to this place, and whenever you need intel or need to talk, lemme know, I like talking to you guys!"

TTS Deactive

A blip on our map popped up, it seemed decently far, but we could reach it before dark even if we just walked

"Alright then, Let's get going, I don't want to freeze" I didn't realize until Matt pointed it out, it was freezing out here

"He's right, this place must be in the middle of the winter, hey Sam, you master that fire magic of yours yet?" Back in the trials when Kenneth and Nicholai were looking for us, the area suddenly became freezing, so I tried getting the fire working again, luckily as a result I got fire magic to work, although, it's hard to handle sometimes.

"Sure! I don't mind" I held up my hand and a small fire came out and stayed atop my hand, it may have been small but everyone's cozy attitude showed me that it still warmed them up "Come on now! Let's go, using this is tiring" And so the seven of us went off towards our hideout.

"I heard the hideout was small, but big enough for us all. I'm sure it'll be a while to get adjusted to it, but hey, we'll probably be fine right? We've been in more cramped areas before right?" Nicholai, unlike her, was optimistic

"Yeah!" Even though she was off I decided to roll with it "We've been in way worse situations and areas, we'll be fine if we come up with something to organize ourselves"

"She's right, after all, we were meant to be on different teams and Sam kinda pushed it so we wouldn't, so we can't really blame them for the small area" I didn't know how to describe it, but it felt as though Lee became really mature, maybe it was because his hat or new hair color, but...

"Hey, Lee?"

"Hmm? What is it Sam?" The others continued past us as we stopped

"Are...you different?" He looked at me confused

"I mean...I'm older now, and I have a new hair color....is that what you meant?"

"No...but, it's fine....I already have my answer"I smiled, I don't care if people call me selfish, but I don't want anyone to change, we're all mature in our own way, we can protect people and ourselves...there isn't a reason to change.....I don't want it to change.

"Okay? That's fine then, come on, let's catch up to the others!" He started walking backward with his back towards everyone else "First one who makes it gets the first call on food!" He began to sprint even running past the others

"Hey! Hold on!" Matt began running as well and the others began to follow, I smiled once more and then joined the race, catching up to them decently fast

"Come on Lee! That wasn't fair!"

"Sorry Sam! But you looked gloomy, everyone looked gloomy, so why not make things interesting!" I began to see a building on the horizon, it was small, but not as small as I expected. I decided then, that if it was this close, I could make it. I decided to give it my all, and after pushing myself to the limit I passed everyone just barely and continued pushing myself to the limit until I had made it to the hideout, apparently though, doing that makes you feel like you wanna throw up so I laid down to take some breaths.

"You alright?" I looked up and saw Neal staring at me "You don't look alright..."

"Ne..What're....ing here...."I could barely even speak, that's how tired I was

"Well, taking an educated guess you're asking why I'm here" I nodded "Well, because I'm your handler, most of the time handlers stay in Eaxura but I wanted to relax with you all, for now, speak of the devils" The others shortly arrived

"God damn, Sam is fast...." Kyle sat on the floor with one knee up with his hand on it

"Hey, if you paid attention when we trained during our human lives you'd know this by know" Lee for the most part looked fine...I know he doesn't do it much, but it felt like he let me win

"Hehe, well, never challenge me to a race ever Sam!" Nicholai laid on the floor like I did, only more tired "Everything's gonna feel numb...first a mountain and now this?"

"Hey...don't mention that mountain, we all wanted to die then" Kayla was gasping for air "I swear, at least warn us first!"

"Think of this as payback for that embarrassing salute thing you all did earlier" He went to the door of the hideout and we all followed

We were met with a control panel

"Just put your hand on it, it'll know who you are" Neal told us, and Lee did exactly that

"ID:08260604, Lee, Welcome" A robotic voice sounded off

"Cool!" It was so cool to see, the way the door opened showed off how reinforced it was

"Isn't this overkill?" Kyle looked at the many doors that opened

"Hey, it's meant to protect you guys after all, if it's overkill then so be it."

"Neal has a point, if an entire team is here wouldn't our enemies try striking us down here? So I think it's fine the way it is" Lee took his hand off the terminal and entered the building "Come on, let's see how our little home is gonna be like." We followed him inside, it looked off, it had a couch, a few armchairs, a TV, a kitchen-like area, a gym, and other bare necessities except for bedrooms.

"Sorry guys, but I'm calling the couch" Kyle stretched ready to relax

"This isn't a place to sleep Kyle, while you can do that, it's more for a short break after missions, or for when you're waiting for them, and yes, i know it isn't much, but most hideouts are based off the team themselves, you can either have your own sections on the sides, or just go crazy and put stuff where ever," Neal explained how we could change the hideout, as much as I don't like organization, it will be better and I can put games and other things on my side if we do it that way.

"I say we go with organization, there seems to be nine outlets, so how about we put out stuff near each outlet?" Kenneth suggested, putting another one of his bags in the ground, the others followed suit afterward

"I guess everyone decided, I know you guys didn't bring much stuff but, you can always find more stuff to put in your spaces later" Neal was still in the doorway, preventing it from closing. "Handlers usually stay in the HQ but for now I'll just make myself at home just in case you get yourself into trouble alright?"

"No objections here, just don't make a mess okay?" Nicholai already had a few things to put on her side, they were, for the most part, medical stuff "If you morons get hurt then come over here and I'll see what I can do..."

"Don't you have magic?" Matt rebutted

"Well, I doubt you can fix everything with magic, and I don't think using magic on humans is a good idea" As Nicholai said that I had a thought in my head, what if we go to our home dimension, will that create some paradox? Or is that allowed...Either way, I wanted to try one day.

"Neal, didn't you say we should look around the dimension as well?" Kayla tried to bring us back on topic as we were mainly messing around, although I have no problem with that.

"Right, back on track. First things first, I'm assuming you all saw the name of this dimension" Before we could say anything Neal continued "Well that's not really the name of the dimension, it's just the name of a major city here, after all, we haven't scouted the entire dimension yet, so we decided we shouldn't name it until we do."

"I get your point, for all you know you could name it something that the culture here hates, or something that's just blatantly wrong" I didn't realize it until now, but Lee had a bracelet and ring on

"Lee.." He looked over at me again

"Yeah? You've been asking a lot of questions recently, is something wrong?"

"Sorry, it's just, I don't remember you wearing those" I pointed at the ring and bracelet

"Yeah...when I was younger someone saved me, they gave me this, although I don't know why...Now that I think about it, they wore the same uniform as you and me, because they had brightly colored hair...although I don't remember their exact hair color." He looked a bit down "They told me something as well, but, my brain hurts whenever I think about it, it's fine though, I'm sure I'll be able to repay them someday" He walked to the doorway, standing beside Neal "Get your stuff set and prepare yourselves, we're going on a trip" Kayla and Kyle looked pissed off, then again, everyone did except for me and Neal

"We just ran two days in a row, and you want us to do it again?" Nicholai looked like she wanted to rip off Lee's head

"Hold on everyone!" Neal interrupted anyone before they could speak their part, and took out some keys "You think we'd just have you walk throughout the entire world? I'm not a sadist"

"Oh...alright then I don't see an issue then" Nicholai stood down and walked outside "Come on then, let's get going" Lee smiled

"Alright then" Neal tossed Lee the keys "Hopefully you know how to drive"

"I do, I'm self-taught but, that was during the apocalypse so I might be a tad rusty" Lee started to twirl the keys "So where's the car?" Neal took a few steps back, tilting his head and pointing. I walked outside and looked to where he was pointing. It took a while to register what I was seeing but when I did I noticed it was a Humvee

"Heh, nice going Neal, now we look like child soldiers" Kyle walked to the car, touching the hood

"eh, isn't that we all technically are? You guys are fighting after all, and you all are children aren't you?" Neal put up I good point that I hadn't realized until now, we are practically child soldiers

"eh, close enough I guess...I'm gonna see if it runs" Lee opened the door and tried to start it up, after a few turns the headlights turned on "Got it!" He looked proud of himself

"Nice! Let's get going now" Kyle, Nicholai, and Kayla climbed in the back and I sat in the passenger seat, while Matt sat where the turret usual is, and Kenneth sat in the far back, where you usual put cargo in

"You sure you wanna be up there?" Lee looked up at Matt while putting his shoulder on the chair

"It'll be fine!" Matt waved off Lee's concern

"Come on Lee, if he wants to let him, let's get going!" Kyle was hyping up Lee to drive, honestly, I haven't seen him drive in ages

"Don't pressure him, we don't wanna die twice now do we?" Nicholai looked calm but if you looked closely you could see her sweating bullets

"You scared Nicholai?" Kenneth called out

"Of course! He hasn't driven in ages! And now seven people are in the car!" Kenneth leaned over the seats and put his hand on Nicholai's shoulder

"Come on now, making Lee stress out more isn't gonna help"

"eh, just get your hands off me, go Lee, I wanna get this over with" Kenneth sat back down on his seat

"Onward Lee!" I cheered raising my fist, almost hitting the windshield. Neal, who was still near the hideout gave of a worried expression "Come on Neal, aren't you tagging along?"

"I think I'll stay in the hideout a little bit longer..." Neal backed into the hideout

TTS Active

Neal- "So, first of all Lee, try to not crash"

Lee- "Hey!"

Neal- "Second, New Min, the main city of this dimension, is a great spot to look around for your first time here"

Kenneth- "Alright, we know our first location...can you put it in our map?"

Neal- "Actually, if it's a big enough city you'll automatically see it on the map, so just open it up and set a waypoint"

Matt- "That's useful, although it isn't for the driver"

Neal- "Yeah, that's why it's recommended you have someone navigate for you, well, if you guys need me, you know how to contact me"

TTS Deactive

"I'll do it!" I already set up the map with the waypoint "Let's go Lee"

"Umm....which way?" I looked at the map again

"Left!"

"Alright then, let's get to it!" Lee took the car off park and began driving, the wind felt nice, it was better than the toxic air we had back when we were human that was for sure.

"Hmm, so, from the looks of it, this may take a while..."I told everyone, as the distance was pretty big even with a car.

"I got an idea" Kyle leaned over, so he was in the middle of Lee and I "We got split up during the apocolpyse, so I was wondering what happened"

"You want us to talk about when we were human?"Kenneth was leaning on the seats Nicholai and Kyle were on "Shouldn't the person who asked go first?"

"Not really..we were the ones who forced them to split off from us, I say it's fair if we just say it" Lee suggested, I was curious about where Kyle and Kayla were but, I had no reason to go against it

"So? Who wants to say it?" Matt from above asked, he seemed relaxed for being able to get flung off at any moment

"I'll say it, I may be driving but I should be able to handle it, so...where do I begin? From the start of the apocalypse? Or when we split up?" Lee readjusted the mirror handing from the roof of the car

"Heh, do you even remember the start? You're memory has been hazy recently" Kyle began to taunt Lee

"Fine, I'll prove I remember, let's start from the beginning, if anyone wants to pitch in so be it" Everyone relaxed and waited for Lee to begin speaking

"Alright! Let's begin!"