Chapter 364
Knowing they were teleporting back to the Empire, Matt had expected them to appear back on the Capital, possibly in Allie's penthouse apartment, or somewhere awful and annoying as a prank. Instead, he found himself in a perfectly sealed room with dozens of high-Tier formations layered one on top of the other to a degree that even a Tier 48 would struggle to break out if he didn’t miss his guess.
His initial reaction was to panic, but he forced that reaction down when he saw that Allie was calm.
She thankfully explained with a sigh while impersonating Manny’s lecturing voice, “Any and all travel outside the Empire means time in the containment room Allison. Any thoughts to avoid the containment room means a trip to the room to see if any impulses have been buried. It's for your own good and it’s standard procedure. Wah wah wah.”
That made a lot of sense, so Matt didn’t complain like Allie started to. He instead tried to connect to the EmpireNet as they waited to see what had been going on while he was away. Except his access was blocked. He should have expected that from Allie’s description, but he was still annoyed that there was nothing he could do but wait.
He was just about to ask how long they were going to be detained when a familiar face walked in. Melinda’s mentor, Baxter.
“Alright. Drop any veils you have, stop any spells, and please don’t complain. If you complain, I’ll start complaining. And I promise, I have more to complain about.”
Matt felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as the implications set in. If a Tier 40 something was complaining about this process, Matt wasn’t sure he wanted to go through with it.
It ended up not being that bad, as he’d gone through similar things before, but Matt still found himself a bit spiritually sore after two weeks of intensive medical tests. Between the rounds of rote questions, giving control answers and basic physical scans for any kind of implanted bugs, he was given a spiritual shakedown - literally, in one instance. The specific ways in which his spirit responded to given forms of trauma were measured for any deviation from his prior baselines, as well as any tell-tale signs of lingering mental compulsions or deep-implanted thoughts. He’d also need to have a few follow-ups some time in the next century or two, but no sooner than five years out, just to make extra sure they hadn’t missed anything.
That last part made him perhaps a bit more sour than he needed to, and when Allie exuberantly asked if anyone wanted to hit a club with her, he probably responded a bit more curtly than he intended.