Chapter 4: Really No Other Option

A beeping noise fills the air.

It's short, yet consistent.

Laying in bed is none other than Razor Smirnov, sleeping soundly. That is until the beeping noise finally wakes him up.

"Uh, my head," the tired Razor groans.

As he starts to become more awake, Razor realizes that the room he is in isn't a bedroom. He's lying on a blue mattress covered in white sheets that is in the center of a dull room lit by several fluorescent lights. The walls are all white while the floor is made up of dull blue tiles. 

Furthermore, the clothes he was once wearing are gone, torn to pieces from Abdulov's fireworks, and in their place is a simple blue hospital gown. There's an IV sticking out of his left arm and hooked up to the machine.

Razor tries to move his hand, but he's unable to. Looking down he sees that his left hand is handcuffed to the hospital bed.

"Huh? What's going on?" Razor asks, confused.

As he tries to break out of his restraints; the door to his hospital room opens and two people enter. One is a 63-year-old doctor with balding gray hair, a gray beard, wrinkly light skin, and brown eyes. The doctor is wearing a blue shirt underneath his white lab coat, black pants, and old brown buckled shoes. The other person is a tall 43-year-old man with short yet messy black hair, brown eyes, and white skin. The tall man is wearing a black military uniform.

"Oh, you woke up sooner than  I thought," The man in the black uniform says gratefully, "Only been 12 hours."

"What happened? Who are you?" Razor asks.

"The name's Nikita Agapov, over there is a great doctor by the name of Sebastian Turner," the man in the black uniform explains, "As for what happened; once you beat Abdulov, you both fell unconscious. So you were taken to the hospital."

After hearing those words, all the memories of the day prior start to flood back into Razor's mind. How he helped a madman set loose several monsters, how he teamed up with several monster killers, and how he beat the man who blew up his apartment building.

The apartment building his sister lived in.

Razor frantically looks around as he asks, "Where's my sister?! Is she alright?! Why am I in handcuffs?"

"Woah, woah, settle down kid," Nikita defensively responds as he lifts up his hands, "You don't need to worry about your sister. The apartment building you used to live in was evacuated long before it was reduced to rubble. Believe it or not, she's actually waiting outside this room. As for why you're in handcuffs; you did help start one of the biggest terrorist attacks this city has seen."

"Oh thank god," Razor sighs in relief before questioning, "Wait I'm a terror what now?"

"Yeah but only technically speaking since you got tricked into it," Nikita says as he places his hand on his chin, "We're in quite the pickle, aren't we? Especially with that body of yours."

"My body?" Razor asks as he looks down.

He notices that his arms and torso are all covered in fresh scars and on his right wrist there's a green metal bracelet with a red ruby attached to him, only it doesn't feel like it's there. It just feels like a part of his body. 

Doctor Sebastian Turner clears his throat as he explains, "When you were fighting Abdulov, something strange happened to you. Something that's never happened before. The blast chip that's meant to suppress blasts from manifesting malfunctioned which caused you to develop your blast. However, it did leave you with many side effects and scars."

Turner lifts up a handheld mirror in front of Razor's face so Razor can take a look. For starters, Razor immediately notices that his pupils have taken on a more diagonal shape rather than a circular one.

"For starters," Turner begins, "this malfunction has seemed to alter the appearance of your eyes, left you with numerous scars, and a bracelet that is attached to your skin. And that's just all the developments we can see on the surface."

"Will I be okay?" Razor asks.

"Well since you haven't dropped dead yet that's a good sign," Turner states, "so most likely there aren't any serious issues."

"Well hey on the bright side," Nikita begins, "You were a massive help in ending Abdulov's scheme, even if you did help start it."

"What even was his plan?" Razor questions.

"He hasn't been talking but if you want my guess," Nikita offers, "He's probably upset at the world for some weird reason."

Nikita continues, "But due to your contributions yesterday, I decided to let you choose your own fate. There are three options."

Nikita lifts up one finger.

"Option one," Nikita says, "we arrest you and you're put in a cell for who knows how long."

Nikita lifts up another finger.

"Option two," Nikita says, "since citizens can't have blasts you will no longer be recognized as a citizen of Fokus. As such you will be forced to leave the country."

Nikita lifts up one more finger.

"And option three," Nikita says with a coy smirk, "you use the powers that you've been given and come work for us; as a monster killer. In addition, you and your sister will be provided housing and food by us for the foreseeable future."

Razor looks down as he considers his options.

"So what'll it be?" Nikita asks.

Razor starts to smirk as he says, "Do you even need me to answer? There's really no other option."

_______________________________

In the hallway of the crowded Rising Heights Hospital, Nadia Smirnova is sitting in a chair all by herself. 

She's pretty nervous as people pass her by and she eventually just decides to look down at the ground. 

As she looks down there, however, she notices someone walking up right in front of her. She looks up to see her brother, Razor Smirnov, standing there in his hospital gown.

"Guess uh," Razor begins to joke in order to break the tension, "Guess I'm the one who slept the whole day away, huh?"

Nadia rushes over to him and hugs him as tears begin to pour from her eyes as she yells, "I thought you died!"

As Razor stands there, his vision starts to get blurry and he too starts to cry. He hugs his sister back as he says, "I thought you did too!"

After a while, the two stop hugging and Razor wipes his tears on the sleeves of his hospital gown.

"I just got a few checkups left and then we're outta here," Razor explains.

Hearing this, Nadia sighs in relief, "Good, because I don't know if I could handle being around so many people for much longer. I'll let Mom & Dad know that you're alright and that we'll be moving back to Tundrayansk for a while."

"Uh actually," Razor says as he scratches the back of his head, "I may have managed to find us a new place."

Nadia looks at him confused.

_______________________________

"YOU GOT A JOB?!"

A few hours later as the sun starts to set, Razor & Nadia are standing outside the entrance of Rising Heights Hospital. Nadia is holding two suitcases while Razor is wearing a long-sleeved white t-shirt and blue tracksuit pants, which are the only clothes that Nadia managed to take that were his before their apartment was evacuated and reduced to rubble.

"Yep, I've finally put down the crown, and my days as an unemployed bum are over," Razor puffs his chest.

"Okay but how come you're now a monster killer?!" Nadia says, startled.

"I was surprised too, y'know," Razor says before cockily adding, "Maybe they were all so impressed at me they just had to give me a job."

"Either that or pity," Nadia groans.

"Yeah, it was out of pity," Tire admits.

Razor & Nadia look behind them to see Tire standing there drinking a spinach-pineapple smoothie out of a paper straw.

"Tire?!" Razor yells.

"Sup, I'm here to help you guys move to your new place," Tire explains.

As Razor looks happy to see him he then notices that his sister Nadia, is too nervous and shy to even speak.

"Oh this is my sister Nadia, Nadia this is Tire," Razor explains.

Tire looks at her and nods before saying, "Tire's just my nickname, my real name is-"

Before Tire can finish talking, however, Katina puts her hand on the top of Tire's head and messes with his hair.

"Glad to see you're out of the hospital and doing well," Katina says as she looks at Razor, "Though you seem a bit…different."

"Yeah it's a weird story," Razor remarks

Tire moves out of the way and then starts to yell at Katina furiously, "Why do you ALWAYS mess with my hair?!"

"Why not?" Katina says as Dmitri & Anastasia walk up to the group.

Tire takes out some hair gel from his jean pocket and he begins to reapply some to his hair as Anastasia walks over to Razor.

"We're going to be the ones that take you to your new place, that's okay?" Anastasia asks.

"Uh…sure?" Razor answers.

"Good, we'll be taking the RV so if you need help getting the luggage on board, let us know," Anastasia replies.

"Will do!"

Anastasia turns around and walks towards the hospital parking lot where the RV is parked. Dmitri, Tire, and Katina start to follow.

"While we head to the place, do you mind if we stop and grab some pelmeni?" Dmitri asks.

"As long as you pay for it," Anastasia answers.

"Oh would you look at that, I lost my appetite," Dmitri replies.

"You cheapskate," Katina sighs.

"I just like getting a good deal," Dmitri affirms

Nadia leans over to Razor and whispers to him, "What did you get us into?"

"I don't know," Razor whispers back as the two follow the group to the RV.

The group reaches the RV and Dmitri helps lift the suitcases into the RV as everyone enters. Razor goes to close the door to the RV when Tire drives off. Razor almost falls out of the moving vehicle but Katina grabs onto his arm and he manages to not fall.

"Dude!" Razor yells upset, "I just got out of the hospital, I don't want to go back already!"

"Then just close the door faster!" Tire yells as the RV drives off away from the hospital.

Whether it was due to chance or due to fate, Razor's whole life practically turned around overnight. But that's just how things happen, sometimes things you never expect to happen will happen.

One thing is certain for Razor though, his average day in the city wasn't so average anymore.

See You Next Chapter!~