The first thought Cynrik had upon opening his eyes and seeing the ceiling of their familiar bedroom was, Oh shit, 1g makes me feel weightless. The next moment before he could even process his next thought, he was assaulted on all sides by an intense wave of nauseating pain.

[SON OF A … TOBS!] as Cynrik was writhing in pain on his bed, across the room, Brance was experiencing the same thing. Months of training and growth were being forcefully merged with their bodies. All of the pain, and exhaustion of 90 days in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, washed over them instantly.

Cynrik and Brance did their best not to make a peep for over an hour while rolling around on their beds. Covered in sweat and grasping at their chests, all they could do was wish for the pain to end sooner. To them, it felt as if they were reliving every battle and injury they had sustained in the virtual world, and this included any time they had lost a limb or even died. All of this pain was downloaded into their body by Tobs.

Cynrik and Brance had speculated how the transfer of power and stats gained in the HBTC would be done, and what they were currently experiencing was what they had both agreed on as the worst-case scenario.

One hour became two, and then two became three. If Cynrik were coherent, he would have noticed one month in the HBTC had equated to one hour of pain. However, once the third hour ended, so did the pain, and in its place was a refreshing feeling, as their bodies began to repair themselves. Cynrik wasn’t sure when he had gone unconscious, but as he came to, he was greeted by the worried visage of Cinyah, who was standing over his bed and anxiously trying to wake him up. “Cyn, Cyn, my baby, it’s alright, you’re ok,” grabbing him and holding his head to her bountiful chest, Cynrik could feel her tears landing on top of his head.

Expressionless Cynrik tossed a question through the Sibling Mind Link, [How long have I been out?]

[According to Tobs, the synchronization lasted three hours, after which I woke up, but you…you’ve been in a coma for two years.] Brance stumbled through the last bit of his statement as he choked up slightly.

Cynrik’s mind began rushing as Cinyah continued sniffling, rubbing his back, and kissing the top of his head. [What…two…years…] the scene playing out in front of him was too convincing; swallowing a mouthful of saliva, he struggled out of of his mother’s grasp just enough so that he’d be able to turn slowly to look at where Brance’s bed should be.

Instead of what he feared, he was greeted by the view of Brance struggling is hardest not to burst out laughing. Tears glistened in his eyes as he saw the rapidly shifting expressions on his older brother’s face.

[YOU UNGRATEFUL FUCKING LITTLE SHIT, WHEN I GET FREE OF MOTHER, YOU’RE GONNA PAY. I AM GOING TO BEAT THE EVER-LIVING HELL OUT OF YOUR STUPID ASS DONKEY FACE.] With accelerated breathing and his left eye twitching, Cynrik verbally assaulted Brance using every swear word that would come to his imagination. All the while, Cinyah was continuously trying to calm herself down, seeing that her boy was alive and well.

Still fighting back his laughter, Brance decided the jig was up and opted to appease the fuming Cynrik by explaining how Tobs had explained that due to the high death count, Cynrik racked up in the HBTC, his body would take a bit longer to adapt. As a result, while Brance had only suffered for three hours before coming to and eventually going to sleep, Cynrik had seizure after seizure in bed all night before falling motionless, until the time when Cinyah came to wake them up for breakfast.

Upon seeing her child motionless and unresponsive, she panicked. She had force-fed him potions and small spherical pills for 15 minutes straight before he finally came to. While this was going on, Brance was just sitting and watching; he had already asked Tobs about Cynriks condition and was reassured that he was fine. But, seeing how Cinyah was clearly overreacting, he hatched a plot to torment his brother when he inevitably woke up.

It took Cinyah several more minutes to calm down before; like a switch being flipped, she started smacking Cynrik over and over on the head, much in the same way she did Rikard, the only difference being it was more like being aggressively patted on the head vs. the full-on violent attacks his father received. “DON’T YOU SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN, I… I thought something happened to you like with little Benny and Gabby.”

Cynrik and Brance tilted their heads to the left in an action resembling twins and squinted in confusion at Cinyahs words. “Mommy, what’s wrong with Benny and Gabby?” Finally, Brance spoke up after hesitating momentarily. Benjamin and Gabriel Sanford had lived their whole lives next door to the Jetlensrs. Their parents had been members of Rikards Reaver squad named “AquaViolet” for over a decade, so when they had children around the same time as Cinyah, it was a no-brainer to have them grow up together. Benny and Gabby, as they were nicknamed, were the closest thing to “best friends” Brance had, so he was concerned, while Cynrik was more concerned about how than the who in this situation. In his mind, Benny and Gabby were just annoying snot-nosed brats that constantly followed him around.

Unlike Brance, who was a goody-two-shoes, Cynrik really couldn’t care less about the kids themselves but was more concerned about what had been happening in the local area for years.

“Brancie, come here and sit down with Cyn; I need to ask you both something important,” Cinyah had seemingly gotten over the minor incident with Cynrik as if it didn’t happen, which he had found strange. Still, he knew that his mother had the same ocular skill he did, so she could easily see there was nothing seriously wrong and that the explanation could wait till later.

“Yesterday, did either of you see or play with Benny and Gabby? According to their home security video, they were seen coming to knock on our door at around 4 pm before going back and playing in their front yard,” Cinyah gave both boys a stern look as she asked her question.

“No, Mom, Brancie, and I were playing in the backyard all day, until nap time, then we ate the leftovers you left for dinner as you told us when we woke up before watching cartoons the rest of the night. I don’t remember hearing the doorbell or any knocking.” Cynrik spoke up while Brance was trying not to show the realization he was having.

At that time, the two of them were already in the HBTC training, so they wouldn’t have been able to hear the two kids knocking anyway. “Listen, my babies, after they left our house, they disappeared, so I need you to remember anything you can, anything at all. Do you remember seeing a strange hovercar or hearing any loud noises around dinner time?” unable to hide her concern any longer, she began interrogating the two boys for any details at all. But no matter what questions she asked, the two couldn’t give her any answers.

Eventually, she concluded that the two hadn’t seen or heard anything. After giving them both a kiss on the head, she confronted Cynrik about why he was so hard to wake up, but contrary to what she expected to hear, she was baffled by the seemingly made-up story he told her. Cynrik stated that he had a crazy dream where he was in a big stadium, fighting all kinds of animals, and even Carlisle was there. In this dream, he was riding on the big bear’s back while hearing his mother’s voice echoing all around, but he couldn’t find her no matter how hard he looked.

Amazed by his brother’s uncanny ability to merge the truth with a load of bullshit into one story, Brance shook his head in disbelief. Even so, he joined in and said he had a similar dream to Cynriks. He had some semblance of what Cynrik was doing here and decided it was best to play along just in case. The two of them weren’t sure what Tier Cinyahs Inspect was, so it was clear to Brance that Cynrik was simply covering his bases just in case she could see their current stats.

It took some convincing, but eventually, Cinyah told the two that they didn’t have to go to school today because it was canceled, and she left the two in their room.

The two brothers sat on Cynriks bed in silence for several minutes, digesting what they had just learned. [Are you thinking what I’m thinking?] Brance was the first to break the silence.

[If what you’re thinking is someone we just know got kidnapped by that shadow organization that’s been acting for years, then yep, sure am.]

[Cyn… we can’t just let something happen to Benny and Gabby… they’re our friends.] Looking at his brother, who was deep in thought, Brance pleaded to Cynrik.

[Correction Brance, they’re YOUR friends, not OURS. Regardless, I’ve long since been tired of fighting AI mobs; maybe it’s time to stretch our legs a bit.] A creepy smirk spread across Cynrik’s face as he began formulating a plan.