"Hello, Subjects!"

With nausea and a splitting headache, Jason slowly awoke. His surroundings were still blurry as moans and complaints reverberated around him. Without getting up, Jason tried to gather his bearings and remember why he was woken up by this pain and not his Galaxy Wars-themed ringing tone.

A faint image of a man came to his mind.

Right, He thought, I was knocked out by that Men in Black looking asshole, wasn't I?

His memories became clearer with every passing moment. Just – at least what he thought was – moments ago, he was walking home with some chicken and mayo from the convenience store — his favorite. Although his mother (and everyone else he knew for that matter) felt strongly put off, or in simpler terms disgusted, by that eating habit, he didn't think they would punch him in the face for it.

Wait,...was that a Toaster? I was knocked out by a Toaster?!

The longer he thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed, his headache and stinging nose didn't seem to get better from it either, so he put it aside for now.

Looking around, he registered the origins of the strange noises from before. A great many people (about two dozen after a quick count) were sprawling in various positions on the floor, groaning and muttering about pain and whatnot. Some had black eyes others bruised noses like him, but all of them were wounded in some way or another, and none of them enjoyed it much (except the one in the corner. Judging by her grin and moans, she didn't seem to mind.). It was clear whoever punched his lights out had a busy night and, looking at the women in the crowd, wasn't discriminating genders in his violent spree.

Everyone, including Jason, was wearing the same white clothes. A simple, if a bit baggy, T-shirt and trousers that stopped above the ankles. Shoes and socks didn't seem to be in fashion, as no one had any.

The room they were in was the same as their clothes. White and nothing else. At first glance, it was hard to even define the walls, but a few helpful people leaned graciously against them, making the task a lot easier. The floor, walls, and surprisingly even the ceiling weren't made of regular concrete though. It seemed a lot softer, a bit elastic and...safe, or at least that what it projected in Jason's eyes.

It reminded him weirdly of padded cells in mental facilities.

By no way was the room big. Barely enough for each of them to have a bit of personal space, maybe an arms-length in each direction.

Now that most of them were awake and aware of their surroundings, confusion and apprehension started to settle in.

“Where am I?”

“What is this? Who are you people?!”

“Fuck! Let me out of here!”

Most resorted to shouting and finger-pointing. Some broke down and cried. There were even a few denying reality, telling themselves they were dreaming.

In Jason's eyes, none of these reactions made much sense. After all, although they were most likely abducted, they weren't in any immediate danger, and even if they were...cursing your kidnappers rarely helped. So he did what he always does; lean back and enjoy the show. People just short of a panic attack or even mental breakdown was something he didn't get to savor often these days.

Welcome to Test Chamber 37! The Most Fun of them all!

Unfortunately, before he could truly relish in the situation, a robotic monotonous, yet strangely joyful voice resounded within the room, shutting the mass of people up. These two seemingly incompatible characteristics truly made for one annoying voice, but at least it was feminine. If some grumpy old dude spoke like that, it would be the height of heresy.

"Who are you, and why are we here?"

As the group was about to snap out of their stupor and restart their shouting, a deep, authoritative voice silenced the people once more.

The orator was a tall blonde man. His bulging muscles and scars that couldn't be hidden by the baggy clothing spoke of a soldier or maybe a martial artist. Combined with a squarish yet handsome face, not only one of the women cast a second glance at him.

Yet despite him being the definition of a Man, the voice seemed unimpressed, being quiet for a while more. Only after a minute passed and the man's frown seemed to threaten to devour his eyes, did the voice let herself be heard again.

Subjects! Congratulations on being chosen! Here you shall be tested and expand upon your Existence! Rejoice!

And it answered no questions. Jason had already suspected as much, but the people who brought them here weren't the most accommodating bunch. From the stocky way the voice spoke, it didn't seem like English was their native tongue either. Were they brought overseas? But then he would have surely woken up along the way. And what did she mean by "expand upon your Existence"? Being tested was still quite understandable, even if he didn't know what kind, but the rest? Total gibberish.

Not only Jason, but even the shouters and macho man were too confused to ask any more questions, so everyone waited in quiet contemplation until the voice spoke out again.

We shall now begin the integration into the System. Yay! Please transfer the pill into your oral cavity and initiate the ingestion process.

With a click, a small drawer extended out of the far left wall. On it was a petri dish with pills and a jug of water with cups stacked beside it. The small crowd waited again, hoping the voice would say more, but even after approximately five minutes, nothing came.

"This is a joke, right? There is no way I am taking these!"

The first to speak up was, unexpectedly, one of the people who had thought this was all a dream. With receding hairline and pot belly, he was what you'd call middle-aged. Someone like him would be forgotten no matter where he went, as there were thousands of others like him, but now all eyes focused on this otherwise inconspicuous man.

Sweat started forming on his brow. Although he had only blurted out what was on his mind, he now had to elaborate a concise argument.

"I-I mean, think about it. That could b-be anything! It could be dangerous!"

Stuttering as it was, the argument was sound. And fairly obvious. No one in his right mind would just accept random drugs given by annoying voices.

But as obvious as it was, Jason was thinking along other lines.

On the one hand, what's the worst that could happen? On the other...I hate medicine.

With a scrunched up face and eyes on the floor, he didn't seem different from all the others, who had now begun to discuss the situation. It seemed the majority of people had calmed down and were thinking rationally again.

Here and there ideas sprung up about what could have happened to them, but nobody knew anything concrete. Instead of standing around and discussing things they couldn't possibly find an answer to, somebody suggested they looked for an exit. The hidden kind. If there was a drawer where they couldn't see one before, who knew what else they overlooked?

Not all were on board, of course, but a good amount found it better than doing nothing and began to search. All the while, the pills and water went untouched, and everyone passing by made a wide berth around it.

At first, Jason wanted to join the search effort but ultimately decided against it. True, looking for an exit or really anything at all would be better than standing around or moping like some others, but...would it be so easy?

Until now, what he had gathered was:

1. Whoever was behind this had enough manpower to successfully kidnap two dozen people in a single night. Whether the abductions were arbitrary or followed a selection remained to be seen.

2. They were undoubtedly in some kind of facility since nobody had a room like this in their apartment, meaning even if they were to escape, they would either be quickly collected and shoved back into the room or were supposed to escape and played right into their opponent's hand.

3. Although there were no (visible) cameras, they were definitely being monitored. The voice only talked (or played if it was a recording or something similar) when all of the Subjects were awake and quiet.

Jason found it hard to believe that people who made these kinds of extensive preparations would be sloppy enough to leave anything that wasn't supposed to be found anywhere near them. No, this half-assed search action wouldn't do them any good. But with all that said, the only thing left was the pills.

It was strange. If the people responsible wanted to inject some kind of drug into their body, then the time they were unconscious seemed to be perfect. Jason was no chemical expert, but something like liquidizing the substance in the pill and introducing it into their defenseless bodies seemed doable. Now that they were awake though? Unless an armed force came into the room and forced them into taking the pills, which didn't seem to be happening, it was unlikely that anyone would volunteer to be the guinea pig.

Well, standing around isn't gonna help either. With a shrug and sigh, Jason walked over to the drawer.

The water seemed as normal as it gets, so he poured himself a cup. Still, to be safe, he took a sniff and only sipped a little at first. As nothing happened, he downed the cup with no hesitation. Anything that didn't act instantaneously, he wouldn't be able to detect anyway, so there was no point in dawdling around.

All the while, none of the other captives tried to stop or discourage him from drinking. Everyone wanted to know what the voice had given them, but nobody wanted to bite the bitter apple. It was only natural, and Jason didn't blame them. Given the choice, he would also rather stand back watch some other poor sob have a seizure after taking the pill, but he knew nobody would step up, and he was becoming bored.

Taking one of the pills in hand, Jason looked it over. It was almost translucent but coated with a glossy exterior that reflected his blue eyes back at him.

He was constantly told his eyes were piercing, his stare unnerving. Jason always attributed the latter to his actions rather than his appearance, but for some reason, at this moment, he couldn't agree more. As if he could see his own soul in these dark blue orbs, he felt laid bare. His life, secrets, even thoughts he never thought he'd share in the open...

And without a second thought, he swallowed the pill.