Chapter 3 A New Strange Hell

The man known as Red Shirt slowly came to, groggy but no longer feeling pain. In fact, he was no longer feeling pain from the loss of his eye from Seth. Even more surprising, he saw Seth clearly with both eyes He recoiled out of instinctual fear, as if a sheep just awoke from a nap, only to be graced in the presence of a vicious wolf. However, Red Shirt quickly discovers he was sat down with his back to a wall, leaving him no room to escape, and furthermore, his hands had been tied up to prevent him from attempting to attack Seth once he woke up.

"Take it easy, idiot." Seth commanded Red Shirt plainly.

Seth was in no mood to take pleasure in any further retaliation against Red Shirt. After what had transpired and discovered between him and Christie, he wanted to prioritize the new developments between him and Christie. Alas, he didn't want to leave loose ends. he wanted to teach Red Shirt a what it meant to cross him, or to threaten his friends and family. After Seth tied up the two unconscious men with the shirts off their backs, Christie healed their injuries then he sat them to the wall of the alleyway.

"Look, be thankful that you got your eye back, but if anything, you should be grateful that Christie was willing to even help you and your friends."

Red Shirt looks to his right, and upon finding no one, looks opposite and notices his other friends practically aligned up to the same wall with him, except goon one wasn't bound nor was he shirtless. Before he could even speak...

"You keep your trap shut and listen to me closely. I've taken the liberty of tying you and one of your buddies up to make sure you don't do anything stupid, like trying to attack me while I'm this close to you," Seth said as he towered over Red Shirt. "Your other friend, the one not tied up, was so scared of me that he spared me the trouble of having to handle him. Practically did everything I ordered him to do without question." Seth knelt down to Red Shirt's eye level without any reservation, but Red Shirt flinched slightly. "So, I expect you to do the same when I tell you to do exactly as I say. As of this moment, nothing happened in this alleyway. I wasn't stabbed, nor you and your friends beaten to a pulp. Not that its possible to prove it since you guys are in perfect health, like it never happened. Courtesy of Christie. Having said that, if you so much as come near me, my friends, or family ever... I will break off all your limbs and beat you senseless with them. And in case you want to call me on a bluff?"

Seth rose to his feet and walked casually towards a large metal dumpster down the alleyway just within sight of Red Shirt and his friends. Seth grabbed the dumpster from the top and bottom, and with a heave, managed to life the dumpster off the ground and several feet in the air, practically over his head without so much as straining. After holding the dumpster for a few seconds, he carefully places back into the same spot prior.

"Don't test me. You will not like it. So, continuing on, since I do not want to waste anymore time on you. We're going to walk out of here, and you're going to wait until you hear my car pull out, and you will hear it pull out. Once we're fully gone, your frightened friend of yours can help untie you and you can all go back home. Nod for understanding."

Red Shirt did exactly as Seth said, no longer willing to continue any confrontation with him. Seth to Red Shirt now was an entity of absolute power and struck fear and dread to him. It didn't matter what Seth demanded of him, Red Shirt would comply without question.

As much as Seth would have reveled, there was no time to gloat or savor the victory he had gained through his own strength of which he couldn't understand. After seeing Red Shirt's compliance, Seth took Christie and quickly left the alleyway, completely disregarding whether or not Red Shirt was feigning. It didn't matter. He had the power to carry out his threat.

Seth and Christie were quick to enter his car, upon which was Terra's cue to emerge from the trunk, something that didn't catch Christie by surprise at all. With the circumstances surrounding them, she expected Seth to have at least hidden her away.

"So... Should we talk now?" Christie spoke first, anxious about what lay ahead in the future.

"Talk about what? What's going on? Seth, what happened?" Terra asked fervently, not knowing the full extent of what Seth managed to pull off.

The sudden barrage of questions overwhelmed Seth. The questions he already had in his head had been enough, but throw in both his sister's and ex-girlfriend's? He was at his limit.

"Terra, not now! Just... Keep quiet for now... I'll explain things when I can... Christie?"

"Yeah?"

"Send a message out to the others, tell them to meet up at Michael's as soon as they can."

Christie nods without another word, she knew Seth well enough to know there was too much on his mind to talk about right at that moment. Enough to warrant a gathering of all their friends and even to involve Terra, no doubt. Without another word, Christie pulls out her phone and begins to text all their friends exactly what Seth requested.

Soon enough, Seth was peeling out and driving full throttle through the streets, doing so as to let Red Shirt and his friends know it was safe for them to leave.

The entirety of the drive to Michael's home was silent. Seth was racking his mind with all sorts of hypothetical answers to questions he barely knew how to ask himself. Just what was shown to him in that vision? What else did Christie see that he didn't? Were the abilities they had now tied to the visions and would they discover more as time went on? And furthermore, how deep did this run? Was it really just him, Christie and Liz? Could the others have been involved somehow?

Seth's answers he was fielding in his head had been gravitating towards a secret experiment of which they have had no recollection of. But that in itself was too outlandish. Far too little served to support that answer. Everything, as far as Seth knew and everyone else as well, had been consistent with their lives around them. There were no true blank spaces of time Seth nor anyone else couldn't account for. And to add to that, these developments came seemingly overnight without any warning. Another hypothetical answer had been something akin to the scenario found in the Matrix movies. In the sense that a portion of their lives had been hijacked and simulated, and only now are they really awake, or inversely, they are all trapped in something else entirely.

The problems with those scenarios had been just outlandishly improbable that would be. Not only that, Seth knew of various virtual reality technologies and what they were capable of. There hadn't been such technology in existence to somehow provide the same physical stimulation as he felt. Not only that, but he was reminded of his own voices earlier words. He'd been different for a long time and there'd been the underlying fact that he'd almost disregarded.

He was only gone overnight. He had a time frame. Between now and last night, something happened of which he and no one else either was aware about or remembered. Which led to a different outlandish concept. Some form of displacement. It was crazy enough for him to think of, but since it was him talking to him, how could he doubt himself? If his own active subconscious knew something that he couldn't actively remember, he had to trust himself that whatever was told to him was the irrefutable truth and needed to find out as much as he could, however he could.

Seth continued dwelling on those thoughts, even as he sat on the couch within Michael's garage. Michael's home was a large family home, housing him, his parents and little brother with room to spare, and attached to the house was a garage that had been converted into a hangout room for him and all the others within his and Seth's circle of friends. The couch that Seth sat upon was large and one of two, with the latter being smaller and off in front of a television to either watch shows or play video games on. There was even a fridge stocked with drinks and snacks. The entire garage itself was the perfect place to simply hang out and just relax amongst friends.

Today however, was not one of those days.

Of all his friends gathered, only a couple couldn't make it out of the twelve.

"Doesn't look like Ian is going to make it after all," Michael, one of the largest people in the room declared. "He's working graveyard in his department tonight."

Michael, who stood as the tallest in the room at six foot two, was heavily built from his years playing football. With short cut, brown hair and a square jawline, Michael was best described by everyone around him as Captain America.

"And what about Hennessy?" Seth asked.

Gabriel, the second largest raised up his phone.

"Just got off the phone with his mother, they just got back from vacation and Hennessy's knocked out for the day, doubt he'll be waking up anytime soon."

Gabriel was slightly leaner than Michael and in comparison had a slight case of baby face with his longer, rustier brown hair that almost covers the tops of his ears, but by no means was he small having been on the same football team with Michael.

Liz had been in a different end of the room, playing darts with Avery, a friend she often played different sports games with and had a very slim, athletic build with his shirt, corn silk, yellow hair. The hulking mass that had been Seb, with a calm and gentle face with combed over blonde hair, was standing idly by, watching the game.

Zeke, someone who'd been the middle ground in terms of physiques of Avery and Michael sported slicked back, dark brown hair, was sitting on the same couch as Seth was, watching television with another friend, Jin with a fairly lean body and short scruffy black hair. R.J., similarly built as Jin but had longer permanent beanie hair, had grabbed a chair and had been sitting adjacent to the couch along with Terra nearby with her own chair. Everyone present within the garage had met each other primarily through elementary school and had grown up with one another, save for Terra who'd known the group her entire life and sometimes hung out with them.

Seth gives a small sigh and rises from his seat, moving towards a more open part of the garage while grabbing the attention of everyone that had gathered, the shirt he'd been wearing before that had the tear from the knife had been covered by a blue zip up hoodie.

"Alright guys, time to tell you all why I had everyone gather, as for Ian and Hennessy, we'll inform them later," Seth announces.

"This oughta be good, if it's coming from you," Zeke, who often clashes with Seth said aloud rolling his eyes.

"Wish it was, honestly, but this isn't anything I'm used to dealing with here... Liz? You want to start off?" Seth calls to Liz across the room.

Everyone looks over to Liz as she hesitantly looks at Seth.

"Sorry, but things have changed," Seth informs her. "It's no longer just the two of us."

Liz widens her eyes in astonishment and realization that there'd been another development, and since it was Seth bringing everyone together, it meant it was far more inclusive than she had hoped. With that, Liz recounts the exact details as she told Seth, even passing her phone around to everyone showing off the scar that she went as far to point exactly where on her chest it was. Much of the group remained silent, skeptical about what Liz told them. The only one to speak up was...

"Okay, you trying to pull a joke on us or something?" Zeke asks Liz while looking at Seth.

"I'm not making this up!" Liz pouted.

Zeke was still not convinced. He continued to sit with his head cocked to the side, essentially acting as the arrogant non-believer. Zeke, more often than not, openly disputed Seth and his various methods of defending him and everyone else. Outright calling him a maniacal sociopath. He was ever so convinced that Seth had put Liz and Christie up to some act. What it was for and why wasn't so much his concern, all he cared about was making abundantly clear he wasn't about to play his game.

"Yeah, and somehow you want us all to believe you can somehow move super fast like the flash?" Zeke openly mocked. "The scar is one thing, but what you're trying to sell us is basically some lame ass superhero origin story."

Liz scowls at Zeke, but instead of indulging her baser instincts to smack Zeke across the face, something that the entire group is used to seeing on occasion, Liz thought up a better solution. She turns to Avery and points to the dartboard with darts still embedded.

"Avery, get one of those darts and give it to Michael," Liz practically orders Avery to do with brimming confidence.

Avery looks at Liz confused and concerned, he quickly deduced what she was planning on doing, and was not about to be an accessory to involuntary bodily harm.

"Go ahead, Avery, Liz knows what's she's doing," Seth announced, as if knowing the exact same thing as Avery was concerned over.

Hearing Seth's assurance, Avery grabs one of the darts and walks over to Michael handing him the dart. Michael, realizing now what Liz wanted him to do with the dart, was even more apprehensive as Liz stood plainly and smiling ever so confidently.

"C'mon, throw it. Throw it as hard as you can!" Liz urges Michael.

Michael gives a quick look over to Seth as he stoically nods in his general direction. Without another word, Michael aims the dart at Liz, albeit halfheartedly and launches it full force. What happened next was something far too fast for most of the group to track, save for Seth, who was barely able to see exactly what happened.

Liz easily catches the dart and immediately launches it with expert precision back to the dartboard, hitting the bullseye. It was done so fast, all anyone saw was a sudden shift in Liz's stance as her arm was outstretched towards the dartboard. As soon as everyone began to understand what had happened, they look to the dartboard to find the dart exactly where Liz had thrown it. When they all look back to Liz, she'd been smugly grinning at Zeke.

"Convinced, yet?" Liz taunts Zeke who'd been slack jawed.

Zeke quickly shakes his head, attempting to recompose himself.

"Okay, that was just some really good reflexes-"

"Zeke, quit trying to lie to yourself. Even you have to admit at this point that ins't normal," Avery calls out from behind the couch.

"Are you saying that she's got some superpower or some crap?" Zeke whips around in his seat and challenges Avery.

"You've got any better ideas to share?" R.J. chimes in.

"Hold on, we only saw what Liz can do... What about Seth and Christie?" Jin asked, breaking the chain of aggression and shifting attention back to the three of interest.

After a quick recap of his and Christie's own experiences, it was, once again, Zeke who scoffs and outright questions the validity of the story.

"Unless I see some actual proof of anything you've told us Seth, I call BS." Zeke strongly declares.

Seth gives Zeke a very exhausted glare. While it wasn't odd for Zeke to clash with him like this, at this point it was getting annoying and tiresome. Furthermore, after what Seth did for Zeke, his expectation was that at least he'd be more willing to believe what he'd say. As for what Seth did for Zeke, it involved an affair with his former boss, of which he was unaware that she'd been married until he met her husband in a very awkward situation. It was thanks to Seth, having collected evidence that he'd been innocently used without knowing that saved Zeke from serious trouble.

"Alright, Zeke, you want some proof? How about this?" Seth slightly drops the hoodie he wore to his elbows, revealing the former stab wound, his grey shirt clearly stained with blood. "This is where I was stabbed today. Notice where all the blood is and the tear in the shirt?"

"Oh please, that could've been anything!"

"Fine. Then watch this."

Seth walks over to the dartboard and pulls out the same dart that Liz tossed. He quickly shows it to everyone in the room, as if to make clear it wasn't fake. Then in a swift motion, jabs it into his forearm and rips through his entire arm in front of everyone, letting the blood gush and spill all over his arm. As everyone cries out, Christie rushes over with a very annoyed look as she covers Seth's arm with her hands, now glowing in the same golden light as before. Right before everyone's eyes, they watched as Seth's wound healed up. The entire time, Seth hadn't so much as elicited a single cry of pain, as if it meant little that he just eviscerated his forearm.

"What in the hell..." R.J. was first to say.

"That just happened didn't it...?" Gabriel mutters in disbelief.

"Did you really have to go that far, Seth?" Christie asked, scowling at Seth.

Seth ignores her and looks dead at Zeke.

"Convinced yet?"

"Convinced that you're a maniac? Yeah. But... That... I don't even know..."

"And you got this all from visions?" Avery asked.

"Except for Liz, pretty much," Seth answered quickly, but he hadn't seemed calm and collected about his answer.

"So what does this all really mean then? With your abilities and the visions? So only you three have those abilities?" Avery continued.

"No, if anything... I think it's more than the three of us."

Everyone drops silent with Seth's shocking revelation. Including Liz and Christie. While Seth didn't explicitly say it, everyone knew what he meant.

"I'm not sure how or why, but I do know the when. Overnight."

The questions that led afterwards amounted up to who had abilities, who didn't have abilities and how sure was Seth in everything he had just declared to be the truth? Seth did his best to explain his thought processes that led to his hypothetical answers, while openly making clear, nothing he said was truly concrete as he had no clue how to gather more information. Even Zeke, who was initially unwilling to believe anything Seth and the girls' said, was now accepting the truth for what it was, as unbelievable as it sounded. When presented with what Liz and Christie demonstrated, he didn't want to even think about what Seth could really do now.

In regard to the drastic changes to the three, everyone in the room suddenly held a large interest in how Seth had changed. Namely his physique. While it wasn't exactly the primary point of discussion before, with the main points discussed and gone, it was R.J. who pointed out how filled out Seth had suddenly become.

"Is how I look now really all that important?" Seth asked unamused.

"Hey, R.J. brought up a good point, you do look a lot more filled out than usual, and you've never worked out in all the years we've known you." Zeke playfully says, eyeing Seth. "I wonder what you look like now underneath that shirt?"

Seth suddenly becomes increasingly embarrassed. He hadn't been fond of being shirtless at the pool or the beach. One of his own weaknesses had been his low self esteem when it concerned his body. Since he was mostly surrounded by people who mainly have athletic bodies, Seth felt out of place, despite how good natured they all were with him. But all it took was Zeke's teasing for most of the guys egging him on to take his shirt off to show what exactly changed. Even Liz, obviously taking advantage of the situation hopped aboard the bandwagon.

"Fine! Fine, I'll take my shirt off! Just don't freaking dissect me with your eyes!" Seth moves to remove his shirt, albeit slowly.

He was hesitant to even show off what had changed, especially since he himself hadn't taken a look at himself either, which meant he himself was slightly curious about what had changed. It was as if it was the red curtain slowly lifted up from a massive display case of an exotic piece for auction. Instead of gawking and amazement, all Seth saw from everyone in the room had been abject horror and shock.

"What?" Seth asked anxiously.

When looking down at himself, Seth was quick to understand just what everyone had been in horror of. All over his body, had been an assortment of scars, so numerous, there hadn't been an inch that didn't have some sort of scar that looked as if Seth had gone through a gauntlet of swords and knives. Even his backside hadn't been spared a similar spectacle.

Seth's entire upper torso had been nothing more than a canvas of scars ranging from small, to grievous. Despite just how slim, muscled and tone his body was, the scars alone easily distracted everyone away from Seth's physique.

That was finally it.

That moment Seth mentally shut down from the sight of his own body.