Ready, everyone? Brief intro for the main character, then we dive right into the action! Hold onto your bonnets, this might get a little bumpy!

Chapter 1: Not Quite the Beginning

The young woman had long hair that gleamed several shades between red and dark brown in the sunlight. Her eyes were dark amber with gold just trimming her pupil, though one eye also sported a green stripe as though in rebellion. She was not the average age of most players; usually the human Chaotic players were tweens, and she was in her twenties. However, everything else a person could see about her was average. Average height, average build, average everything that could be judged in a glance. But a person who took only a moment longer would notice; there was something about her that was decidedly... unaverage. Special. Different.

Of course, at the moment that quality could be attributed to her predicament.

She yelped involuntarily and leapt away from the wall as an attack went whizzing over her head, far above the lip of the hole she was trapped in. Among the sounds of battle and voices, she heard a crack of stone as whatever the attack had been slammed into a rock wall. Then, to top off her list of bad sounds, she heard rumbling, and recognized the sound of a boulder slowly beginning to fall from it's place.

How in the heck did she get herself into these situations?

Her hands dug again into the side of the wall, attempting to escape the pit even more desperately now. With her luck that boulder was headed right for her, and the green
creature who had promised to assist her as she journeyed was a little preoccupied fighting off a would-be captor at the moment. In fact, the pit she'd fallen into had been meant for him, and would have worked had she not been running ahead of him at that moment, teasing him. This was be the second time she'd stopped him from falling into a trap in almost as many days, she realized.

The side of the hole was too smooth to find any purchase; this was a trap meant for a creature, far too deep and slick for a human to have any hope of escaping from. Circumstances were not made better by the fact that huge vines covering the pit floor had clasped onto her ankles, slowly squeezing and weaving their way up her legs.
The part of the situation that truly made it difficult, however, was the pair of cuffs she wore. Each time she felt a rush of adrenaline that could possibly push her to climb a few inches or tear a vine, they sensed it and reacted, draining the energy from her body like a sponge and leaving her feeling weaker than before. They grew hot as they fueled themselves and now they burned against her skin from all the energy.

As the rumbling grew louder she knew that the rock had to be heading for her. "Well, typical," she thought, fear forcing more adrenaline through her body as the cuffs grew hotter. Suddenly forgetting (or perhaps no longer caring about) the risk of distracting him in battle, she finally cried out to her temporary travelling companion.

"Maxxor! There's a boulder!!" she yelled, the panic evident in her voice. Seconds later vines dashed across the opening, and sure enough the rolling boulder inched into view, temporarily ceased by the thin obstructions. She heard Maxxor's battle cry as he turned back to his opponent to give what sounded like a very painful lesson, called "This is Why You Never Try to Ambush the Leader of the Overworld". Once again she marveled at her luck of running into him, when he was on his way back from a mission that had more to do with her than he might have ever guessed.

She heard the voice that had been unceasingly throwing taunts turn into a yelp of pain, and the string of words ended. For a few seconds she heard nothing but the ominous creaking of vines overhead. She looked helplessly, waiting for any other noise. It had sounded like Maxxor won... so where was he? Another moment of excruciating silence passed, and one vine weakened... and snapped.

There was a blur of red against green as Maxxor appeared, grasping the huge rock tightly and slowly pulling it away from the pit it seemed so desperate to fall into. The girl looked up at him, face still set with panic. Then a smile broke through. She gave a nervous laugh. He flashed a crooked smile down at her.

"Close enough for you, May?" he asked once the boulder was safely moved. He bent and riped the vines out of the way, preparing a fireball in his hand to burn the creeping vines at the bottom so he could come down and help her out.

"Impressive use of suspense, yeah... but you could make it a little less close, next time," she sighed, tired relief filling her eyes. "Man... for a minute there, I really thought--"

The happy moment was ruined by the loud crack-hiss of something being shot, and Maxxor grimaced as a yell leapt shortly from his throat. His body went rigid, as though whatever it was had stung, but his face showed a stronger feeling; anger. Frustration at himself. This was the third time he had let his guard down in this forest, a place that held many caves leading to the Underworld. The reason May had asked for his help was mostly that fact; she was afraid that Chaor would send someone after her. Why, Maxxor wasn't quite sure, but he knew it had something to do with the cuffs she wore and how she promised Maxxor he could have them once she got them off, claiming they could negate the powers of Creatures. It sounded like the very battle gear Maxxor had been out to find, and considering the mess she'd just gotten him out of, he had readily agreed. Each time he'd been caught offguard on their journey, she'd prevented that uncharacteristic mistake from harming him. But she couldn't this time.

"Three strikes and you're out," he thought to himself, recalling the phrase he'd heard Chaotic players say to each other. Then he fell forward into the pit.

"MAXXOR!!" May cried in shock, struggling against the vines as some weaved their way around the unconscious Overworlder. She couldn't move even remotely close to him. Not that she could have helped anyway.

A shadow fell on her from ground-level, and she froze as she turned around to look at who cast it. It was hard to see... but it looked like a Danian. Hadn't she heard a more Mipedian-like voice before? This couldn't be the same creature Maxxor had been fighting. This was another companion, another partner-in-crime that had cowardly shot a legendary fighter from behind.

"A human?" the shadow-caster finally sputtered. She was right; definitely a different voice. "Maxxor let himself get careless for... a human??"

"I wouldn't judge," she heard herself replying. "You're the one who shot him in the back after someone else wore him out. Careful. You're really close to provoking some bad karma there." She had no idea what her mouth was doing, but it felt good to say something that made this feel less out of her control.

The Danian was silent for a moment, then chuckled. "Troipen's gonna love you," he said, as though it were already planned out that he, May, and "Troipen" were all going out for a lovely stroll in the park, in which they would exchange names and backgrounds and little stories of funny things that had happened to them in their childhood. He raised the weapon in his hand, aiming it steadily at her. She had plenty of time in his relaxed movements to decide she couldn't run; she would just shut her eyes and hope the cuffs didn't magnify it too much. "Well," she thought, "I guess I can't count falling into a pit that was meant for Maxxor as saving him after all." The last thing she heard before she met the blank place in her mind was the crack-hiss of the stun staff firing.

There it is, my first ever fanfic chapter! Anybody lost yet? Hopefully not. I'm not sure if I'm lost... Was it a right turn or a left at the De-Energy cuffs?

I tried to keep the first chapter kinda short, but I promise the next will be longer and will come soon!

Theories, reviews, anybody got some? Who the heck is this May girl? Why is she afraid of Chaor being after her? How in the world did she get into those cuffs if they're meant for creatures? Where did the cuffs come from, and what connection does May have to them? And who are these creatures that have captured her and Maxxor??

One of these questions will be answered next chapter! The rest... well, I'll try to make them more tantalizingly unanswered, most likely. Sorry. But, deep down you know you love the mystery and suspense-ness. So you're welcome, deep-down-selves. The next one goes out to you.