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Chapter two: The New Chaotic Part One

After her code materialized, Mary knew something was still very wrong.

"How the heck did I transport outside?!" she said, looking around wide eyed at the odd, colorful buildings that made up Chaotic.

Nothing was out of place and everything looked the same as when she was last here, but the fact that her code was transported outside and not on one of the transport pads was not a good sign.

She always thought the transport pads were necessary for the transportation process (however that worked), so it was very odd for her to not have been on one of the pads, but she has no idea how the technology in Chaotic works. So maybe the Code Masters made it to where they didn't need the pads no more to transport to Chaotic. At least that was what she was hoping for, but surely, they would have sent out a message explaining that. She needed to find answers and fast before something else weird happens.

There weren't any players around her, but she could see that there were a few people standing next to the Amzen drome.

Deciding to go ask if they knew anything about the transport pads, she went towards the nearest person.

"Hey." She greeted a random guy who was sitting down on a bench, playing with his yellow scanner. "The name's Mary." she held out her hand to him.

The guy looked up and smiled. "I'm Drake." They shook hands.

"So, anything new in Chaotic?" she asked, not sure if she should outright ask about the transport pads or not. It didn't help that she normally wasn't good at talking to new people.

Drake shrugged his shoulders. "No. Nothing new that I know about."

Mary bite her lower lip, thinking if she should just ask, but her gut was telling her something wasn't right, and she didn't want to say something that would give her unwanted attention.

Sighing, she asked: "Is there something wrong with the transport pads?"

Now Drake looked confused. It looked like he had no idea what she was talking about. Well too late to take her question back now.

"What are transport pads?" he asked. He was either a really good actor and playing a joke on her, or he really had no idea what she was talking about. Taking a deep breath Mary thought it would be best to end this conversation.

"Never mind." she said. "I got to go. See you around." she walked off, trying to keep her emotions together.

She felt like she was on the verge of a mental breakdown, but she somehow managed kept her emotions in check.

Chaotic was supposed to be the safe place; the place where players could go to have fun and not worry about the problems on Earth or Perim. But right now, Chaotic didn't feel safe for Mary. All players knew about the transport pads and if that guy didn't even know about the transport pads then what are the chances that the pads are still here? She knew that Drake was not a newbie (she has seen him battle in the Tirasis drome a few months back), so he should know about the transport pads.

She thought she was losing her mind. It was like when she first transported to Chaotic. Being teleported from her bedroom to a strange place did not do any good for her nerves.

Needing to find out about the transport pads, she walked straight to where she remembered the nearest set of transportation pads should be at, which were inside the Port Court.

She sighed in relief when she saw that the pads were at the same place they have always been. That meant that she wasn't losing her mind, but then why would that guy say he didn't know what they were?

Maybe he was the one going crazy here and not her. Though as nice as that would be, she seriously doubted it.

Seeing one of the Port Court robots was close by, she waved the flying robot over. "Hey, robot dude." she called out. The robot quickly came over to her.

"May I help you?" the robot politely asked, though Mary got the feeling the robot did not like being called 'robot dude'. She didn't want to take up too much of the robot's time, since it was holding a tray filled with food that some players were waiting for and the fact that the robots can become rude when a player keeps them from delivering food.

So unlike with Drake, she just got straight to the question she wanted answered. "What are those pad things on the floor called?" If the robot was surprised by the weird and random question, it didn't show it. She thought it would be better for her to ask the robot instead of another player because if she was sounding crazy then the robot wouldn't care one way or another. It would probably just think she was acting like any of the other irrational humans it has to serve food to every day.

"They are called return to home pads or RTH pads for short, which is what Chaotic players normally refer to them as." the robot informed her in that emotionless tone the Chaotic robots are known for. That wasn't the answer Mary wanted to hear. "Is that all?" it asked, and Mary just nodded yes, her eyes were glued to the metal floor, too deep in thought to give a verbal answer. The robot quickly left to deliver the food.

Her legs felt wobbly. She needed to sit down and think. Finding a nearby table with no one setting there, she put her backpack on the ground and took a set. Pulling out her scanner, she started staring at the screen, making it look like she was playing on it so no one would think she was just starting off into empty space for no reason.

Why me? What did I do to get stuck in this mess? She thought, but she knew it was most likely because she just had to rob an ancient temple and tried to trade away that babble thing, which was what probably made everything change. Well, not everything had changed at least not from what she has seen so far in Chaotic. In fact, the only thing that has changed in Chaotic is the name of the transportation pads and how they functioned.

The new name didn't even make that much sense to her. Why 'return to home' pads? Was it because players used them to go home? She really didn't like the name change, but at least that's the only thing different about Chaotic. She hopped it was the only thing that changed.

Her scanner began to buzz, telling her that someone was calling her. She saw that it was Perim Princess, one of the newer players who Mary has been hanging out with for a few weeks now. Her real name was Shinwan and she was becoming quite popular in Chaotic. On her first day in Chaotic, she made Chaotic history by becoming the first player to scan a M'arrillian.

Even though they've been talking and hanging out in Chaotic, Mary couldn't say they were friends. Sure, she knew her, but not well and she never called her before. She didn't know why Shinwan would be calling her now of all times.

She tapped the icon to answer and the second she did, Shinwan's face appeared on her screen.

"Where are you?" she asked, sounding concerned, which confused Mary. She wasn't close enough to Shinwan for her to be worried about where she was at.

"Sitting down at a table in the Port Court." Mary told her. She was not sure why Shinwan wanted to know, so she asked: "Why do you want to know where I'm at?"

Shinwan looked surprised. "Did you forget about our match today? I reminded you yesterday, how could you forget?" she asked, her voice changed from worried to irritated.

What? I didn't have a match scheduled for today. I didn't even see her yesterday, Mary thought, thinking back to when she checked her Chaotic schedule. She had checked for any matches to make sure she wouldn't miss any while she was gone to Gigantpaplis. Her next match was two weeks away and she knew she didn't ask Shinwan or anyone else to battle with her.

"Are you coming or not? I don't like standing around in a drome all day you know and I'm sure other players would like to use the drome too." Shinwan said, braking Mary out of her thoughts.

"Um, sure I'll be there." she said. Not that she wanted to go battle, since she was still freaking out about what's happening to her. She just agreed out of an impulsive decision without thinking. "What drome are you in?" Since she didn't even know about the match, she wouldn't have known what drome to go to.

Shinwan rolled her eyes, "I'm in the Chirrul drome."

"Okay, I'll be over there in a minute."

"You better, I can't hold the drome for much longer. The drome-voice-robot-thing is about to call this match a forfeit." Shinwan then turned off the communication.

Taking a deep breath to steady her nervous, Mary stood up from the table, picked up her backpack and left to go battle Perim Princess.

She was fairly close to the Chirrul drome, so it didn't take long for her to make it there. Shinwan was in the drome standing on the other side, with her scanner docked and the screen hologram up.

"Awesome! You made it just in time!" Shinwan joyously said, "The Chaotic holographic icon was a second away from calling it a forfeit and kicking me out." Mary didn't respond because she didn't know what to say. Shinwan looked a little worried, but Mary didn't think much about it. She also tried to ignore the fact that Shinwan was staring at her like there was something wrong about her.

"What's with the backpack?" Shinwan asked.

Mary didn't think explaining her trip to Gigantpaplis would be a good idea at least not right now. So, she just lied to her. "The me back home was going on a camping trip, so I had this with me when I transported my code here." Shinwan did not look like she was buying the story, but she didn't bother to ask any more questions to Mary's relief.

Walking up to the scanner dock, she locked in her scanner in and the large hologram appeared in front of Mary. It was showing all her scans. It also revealed that this was going to be a three vs. three match.

Since Mary was an Underworld player most of her creature cards are Underworlders and her location deck was filled with hot, fire locations from every corner of the Underworld. There were a few non-Underworld cards like the Gigantpaplis location card, which she put in as one of the ten locations for this match.

Shinwan already had her deck sit up when Mary walked inside, so she was just waiting for Mary to pick her cards. She didn't have to wait long though, because Mary just went with her favorite scans, not even thinking of a strategy for the game. With all that has happened to her today, her mind couldn't think about the match. She really didn't care if she won or not.

Once, she put her last card into place, she locked in her deck and said, " Battle team locked."

"Let's get Chaotic." they both said, though Shinwan sounded more energetic while Mary sounded like she just wanted the match to be done with as soon as possible. Mary normally loved saying those three magic words like every player in Chaotic, but she wasn't in the mood. The only reason she even said the words were to let the drome robot know that she was ready for the match to begin.

The board hologram then changed to reveal the teams.

"Who're those creatures?!" Shinwan gasped, pointing to the board. Mary was confused by what Shinwan asked.

The creatures on Mary's team were: Ulmar and Nivenna in the front row and in the back row was Chaor. All three Underworlders are well-known in Perim and Chaotic, so it was a shock to Mary that Shinwan acted like she has never seen them before.

For a moment, Mary thought that maybe Shinwan just didn't know who Nivenna was, since Nivenna is an uncommon scan and there were still many players who didn't know she existed even though Nivenna had a high position in the Underworld hierarchy. Shinwan was still very new to Chaotic, so it would make sense that she didn't know about Nivenna, but the way she asked made it sound like she didn't know any of the three Underworlders. She should have at least recognized Chaor; the Chaotic company used him enough in their advertisements to were even non-players knew about him.

"Um, they're just some Underworlders." Mary said, not sure what to tell Shinwan.

"Wait, is that Nivenna?!" Shinwan shouted, her jaw dropped down and her eyes widened from shock, "Why does the scan say she's an Underworlder and what is she wearing?!" she asked looking horrified.

"Isn't that what she normally wears?" Mary asked, looking at her Nivenna scan. It looked normal and Nivenna was wearing what she normally wears.

"NO! Look at my scan of her," Shinwan said, getting Mary to look at her team, which she hadn't done yet. "That's a normal scan of Nivenna." Now it was Mary's turn to be shocked.

The first thing she saw that was different between the two scans of Nivenna was that Shinwan's scan had Nivenna as an Overworlder. Mary felt feint at looking at the scan.

The Overworld Nivenna was wearing armor that looked just like her twin sister, Aivenna's armor, but with different colors. Aivenna's armor is white with blue trimming, while this Overworld Nivenna's armor was a shade of blue darker than her skin with white trimming. Her red hair had changed as well, but not by much. Part of her hair was braided at the end of it that draped on her left shoulder, which was the same style as Aivenna. The only difference about the twins' hair was that Aivenna's braid was on her right shoulder while Nivenna's was on her left.

The background of the card looked like it was an Overworld location, but Mary couldn't tell which location. There was a stream of fresh water behind her, so it could have been somewhere in the River Lands.

Her stats were about the same, except now she had no mugic counters, she had the element of water, her speed was higher, and her wisdom was a little lower. Nivenna wasn't even a Muge in Shinwan's scan. Instead she was an Overworld warrior like her twin sister.

Mary has never seen Nivenna look so much like Aivenna. It wasn't just her new outfit and her new hair style or her new powers or new rank in the Overworld. It was her smile that throw Mary off.

Nivenna was an Underworlder, so her smile tended to look mischievous or smug just like other Underworlders'. But the smile on this Nivenna's face was warm, welcoming and filled with pure joy. It was like it wasn't even Nivenna in the picture, but someone else who just happened to look a like her.

"ButterflyMary015, since you were late for the match by twenty minutes, Perim Princess will attack first." the robotic voice informed them, getting both girls to stop staring at the scans. The voice put extra emphasis on the twenty-minute tardiness.

"Well, I have no idea how you got an Underworld Nivenna scan or any of those other two weird Underworlders for that matter, but don't think this means you'll win. I'll defeat all three of them in no time. " Shinwan declared, arms on hips with a wide smile and determination shining in her eyes.

"Just pick a location and who attacks first. I can't wait to see how your creatures will do against mine." Her words didn't hold the normal banter tone players used to intimidate one another. She wanted to see if there was anything else different with Shinwan's Nivenna card and also if her other Overworlders were changed in some way. Looks like this match has become a research mission.

Shinwan's three Overworlders were: Viqtarr and Aivenna in the front row with Nivenna in the back. The creature Mary wanted to battle the most was Nivenna, but to get to her, Mary would have to defeat Viqtarr first. Though she also wanted to battle the Aivenna card as well. Aivenna looked the same from what Mary remembered and her stats were normal.

Shinwan spun the randomizer. The locations kept appearing then disappearing on the holographic board before it began to slow down until it stopped on Kiru City.

'At least the location looks the same.' Mary thought, looking at the location scan. She looked over towards Shinwan. 'Now, she just has to pick the creatures then this game can get going.'

"Let's see, who should I fight first," she said, looking at her options. " Viqtarr attacks the little green dude in Kiru City." she said, not knowing Ulmar's name.

"His name is Ulmar." Mary told her, though now she wished she hadn't said it because right after she told her, Shinwan's eyes slightly widened. That could only mean that her Ulmar scan was in some way different than what he is supposed to look like. Mary wished she knew what was going on and why Shinwan didn't know any of her creatures (while she knew Nivenna and apparently Ulmar, but they were now different than what Shinwan thought they should look like).

"Wow, that's Ulmar? But he has a body. That's so freaky." Shinwan said, staring at Ulmar's picture. Mary was just happy that Shinwan wasn't asking anymore questions.

"Players, please touch your scans, so the battle may commence." the robotic voice instructed, somehow managing to sound annoyed even though its tone didn't change from when it previously spoke.

Mary couldn't blame the robot for getting a bit inpatient with them. She had been late to the match and now they were wasting time by standing around, looking at each other's team. There were probably other matches scheduled for today, after all, and other players may not like waiting for their turns while she and Shinwan weren't even battling, yet.

"Okay, okay, no need to get all snappy," With one finger, Shinwan lightly tapped her scan of Viqtarr. The same finger that touched the scan was the first part of her body that began to change and within a few seconds, Shinwan was an oversized grizzly bear.

Mary had to suppress a grimace from overcoming her face. Shinwan's scan of Viqtarr only had two things wrong with him, but other than his missing left arm and both his eyes completely intact, he looked just like how Mary remembers him.

She touches her scan and is instantly turned into Ulmar.

"You know, Mary, if you did somehow forged or altered your Ulmar scan then you could have at least have made his body not so small and weak." Shinwan said, her voice now sounding like Viqtarr's much more deeper voice. "What's the point of cheating if it just makes your creatures weaker?" she said, in a teasingly tone.

"I'm no cheater!" she protested. Shinwan's tone and choice of words was meant to get a raise out of Mary and it worked big time. Being accused of cheating, even if it was meant in a more playful way than in a hostile way, made her angry and ready to show Shinwan that she would never resort to cheating just to get a win.

Her anger almost made her forget about how everything was different. For all that she knew, this was probably how Shinwan acted towards her.

Shinwan, for her part, looked taken aback by Mary's sudden outburst. She just wanted to get the girl into a fighting mood. Why was she suddenly getting angry at her?

Before either of the two girls could say anything farther, the drome turned into the ancient Kiru City.

The drome had put Mary outside on the roof of some large five story building, close to the center of the heart of the city, which meant it was more than likely a government building or something along those lines.

Ulmar's eyesight wasn't that much better than a human's, but Mary could still see a good way away from where she was standing. Unlike Shinwan's creatures, her scan of Kiru City looked the same as of what Mary remembered, so that made her feel a little better knowing that not everything has changed.

From where she was at, she would have the small advantage of being able to spot the giant bear creature and making it hard for Shinwan to use a sneak attack on her. But then Shinwan had just as good a chance of seeing her first and with the battle gear that Mary gave to Ulmar, she would have a better advantage leaving the high ground for now.

Ulmar was weak compared to the Overworlder Viqtarr and even if the grizzly bear was now missing an arm, there was no doubt that Mary as Ulmar wouldn't last a minute in hand-to-hand combat with Viqtarr.

She will have to be careful to only use long range attacks and to stay far away from Shinwan. That is if she didn't have her battle gear out, then Shinwan would have to be careful getting close to her instead.

Carefully climbing her way down from the rooftop, Mary jumps off the side of the building once she was close enough to the ground. With the tall buildings made of marble and stone surrounding her, she has lost her great view of the city and with her still being out in the open, she was at a major disadvantage.

Viqtarr spent most of his life in Kiru City and he knows the ends and outs of the whole place. Compared to Viqtarr, Ulmar was a newbie in the ancient Overworld capital. Although, Ulmar has been to Kiru City before to steal the Overworlders battle gear and a few times during the M'arrillian War when he was a part of the Alliance, he still did not know that much about the city.

With the limited information Ulmar had, Mary had to rely on her own knowledge of Kiru City to help guide her through the maze of buildings. Not the easiest of tasks but it's not like she never fight like this before.

Keeping to the shadows as best she could, Mary moves as silently as Ulmar could.

She went like this for a few minutes. Normally, it doesn't take players long to find each other; maybe ten minutes, but there have been matches that have taken hours for the players to find each other.

Her nerves were starting to get to her. It felt like every corner she turned there would be a giant bear there ready to attack.

There was a faint noise to her left.

She turned just in time to get hit by a wooden cart.


Author's Notes:

In case you didn't know this, Shinwan first appeared in the episode "Newbie" in season two.

I'll try getting through the match next chapter but I'm not good at writing fighting scenes.