I came up with this idea after I watched Last Stand, Part 1. About how the Transport Center got shut down. But I sort of made it non-canon. Take it how you want it.

Ghosts of Players Past

It had been forty years since the last person had ported into the Port Court.

Forty years since someone had seen Chaotic.

And forty years since anyone had been to Perim.

After a series of dangerous events that had threatened the Code of the players occurred and the Codemasters had shut down the Transport Center, people began porting to Chaotic less and less. Soon, it came to the point where people stopped porting out all together. Chaotic was shut down and ceased to exist. For forty years, it lay dormant, waiting for a time when players could port to it once again.

And that time had finally come.

Criss felt his Code drop into the Transport Center of the Port Court and shook his head, still getting used to the feeling of porting. It had been a month since he'd first gotten his Transport Code but the feeling of porting still threw him off.

He looked around the Port Court for his friends and found them sitting at their usual table, waiting for him. He bounded off the Transport Center and ran across the Port Court to take a seat next to them.

"Hey Criss!" Donny grinned, passing him a plate full of fries while simultaneously making sure his blonde hair was still styled exactly as it should be, "You're late!"

"Sorry, I had homework to finish and Mom was watching me so I couldn't port." Criss explained, "Marko, toss me the ketchup!"

The German boy across the table from Criss deftly tossed the red bottle to him and Criss caught it. Marko was six feet tall and only fifteen with slick black hair that hung to the base of his neck. But he was mute, he couldn't speak and never would but his companions didn't mind.

Megan and Jewel were the last members of the group, a couple of twins who'd ported together and only hung out with the others because they were head-over-heels for Donny and fought with each other all the time.

"Who's coming with me to the OverWorld today?" Criss asked, looking around the table.

"Can't. Gotta Drome match." Donny muttered, "Sorry."

"We're cheering him on." Said the twins at the same time.

Marko raised a hand and indicated the pocket of his vest where his Code Scanner was. That meant he was going on a Scan Quest to the UnderWorld later. Criss sighed and stood up, grabbing a last handful of fries,

"Alright, guess I'll go by myself then."

It was a part of the OverWorld that Criss had not yet explored.

He followed a slow moving river into a deep canyon, kicking aside the smooth, black stones that littered his path, and keeping an eye out for anything Code-threatening. A dark cave loomed up ahead and Criss hesitated. Then he steeled himself and stepped into the cave, casting his gaze around. Burgundy crystals jutted from every inch of the stone walls, reflecting the sunlight still coming in through the entrance. Criss ran his fingers over one of the crystals; it felt smooth, like glass, but warm. Criss pulled out his Code Scanner and got a scan of the place. As he tucked his Scanner away, he saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look but saw nothing.

"Hey." Said a voice and Criss looked around to see a boy with jet black hair and brilliant blue eyes standing with his hands in his pockets and leaning against a pillar of crystals, "Who're you?"

"I…" Criss's voice cracked as he looked closer at the other boy. There was something…off about him. He didn't look solid; in fact, Criss could almost see through him, "Wha…what…what's g-going…what a-are you—!?"

"I think you scared him." Said another voice and Criss spun around to see another translucent boy standing behind him. He had spiky red hair and glasses.

"Holy crap!" Criss stumbled backward and a pair of cold hands caught his shoulders. Criss pulled away and looked around to see yet another boy watching him. His hair was brown and scruffy but his emerald eyes twinkled with merriment.

"Take it easy, dude!"

"A-a-are you g-g-g-g-ghosts!?" Criss stammered, terrified of these apparitions.

"You could say that." Said the voice of a girl and Criss fell back against a pillar, staring up in shock at the blonde haired girl looking down at him.

"Oh my gosh, you're gonna EAT MY SOUL!"

The boy with the glasses snickered, put his hand over his mouth, and then started laugh loudly, doubling over with humor. The girl rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips,

"Kaz, stop laughing at him"

"Dude, seriously, he's scared out of his Code!" Said the brown haired boy, crossing his arms, "Come on, kid, we're not gonna eat your soul!"

"What…?" Criss swallowed, looking from one ghost to the other, "Then…what're you going to do to me…?"

"We just wanted to talk." Said the black haired boy, sitting down on the ground next to Criss, "I'm Tom Majors. When I still played Chaotic, my screen name was MajorTom."

"My name's Criss, I—wait, when you played Chaotic?" Criss repeated, "What do you mean?"

"We were players in Chaotic." Said the girl, "My name is Sarah, Chaotic screen name ChaotiKween." She sat on an outcropping of crystal and crossed her legs.

"My name's Peyton!" Said the brown haired boy, "But my Chaotic screen name was PeytonicMaster."

"Kazdan Kalinkas." Said the red head, holding out his hand. Criss hesitantly shook it and shivered at the chill, "But call me Kaz. My Chaotic screen name was KidChaor."

"You guys are Chaotic players?" Criss asked, leaning against the crystal pillar.

"We were Chaotic players." Sarah answered, "You know that Chaotic was shut down a long time ago, right?"

"Yeah, for fourty years." Criss responded, "None of us new players were ever told why but we always figured it was because of technical problems." He rubbed a hand across his forehead, "But there were rumors that it was because of something dangerous to the players."

"And that's the truth." Tom said, "Have you ever heard of a tribe called the M'arrilians?"

"No. There are only the four tribes…" Criss responded.

"When we were still players, a tribe of Creatures called the M'arrilians were overtaking Perim," Kaz sighed as though at a painful memory, "They mind controlled the other tribes and made them fight with one another. It was horrible."

"Eventually, it got the point where players like us were in danger of being mind controlled or Coded too." Peyton added, putting his chin in his hands.

"I did get mind controlled!" Kaz suddenly said, "It was scary as heck! I don't even remember what I was doing! If it wasn't for Tom, I probably would have been Coded for good!"

"So because of the M'arrilians, Chaotic was shut down?" Criss murmured, "Whoa. But, how come you guys are here?"

"The Codemasters only shut the Transport Center down first." Tom explained, "But once people couldn't port to Perim anymore, the novelty of it sort of…died."

"We were in Perim when the Transport Center was shut down." Sarah picked up the explination, "So we ended up trapped in Perim. Well, actually, me, Tom, and Peyton were and Kaz was stuck into Chaotic."

"Then some other players hacked the Transport Center and managed to port out to Perim." Kaz said, "I followed them and met up with Tom, Sarah, and Peyton. That's when the Codemasters really locked down the Transport Center. We all ended up trapped here."

"So, why do you look like ghosts or something?" Criss brought his knees up to his chin and wrapped his arms around his ankles.

"Our Codes were trapped in Perim so we couldn't port home." Peyton said, "But our real world selves kept growing up. We sort of guessed that because we couldn't port, we couldn't get our Codes to grow up. And we sort of just became imprinted into Perim, faded into it or whatever."

"Wow…" Criss ran a hand through his brown hair, "So, you guys really are ghosts."

"Almost." Sarah said, "The laws of nature still apply to us. We can't pass through walls or anything and gravity still affects us like everyone else. We're just…figments of our former selves, I guess."

"It's not so bad." Kaz added, rocking back and forth where he was sitting on an outcropping of crystal, "I mean, it gets kinda slow around here sometimes but, ya' know, it's Perim, there's always something going on."

"Hey, would you guys care if I brought my friends along tomorrow?" Criss asked suddenly, smiling at them as he got to his feet, "I bet they'd all think this was pretty cool!"

"Uuuuhhh…" Peyton shrugged one shoulder and looked around at Tom. Tom looked at Kaz and Kaz looked at Sarah. Then they laughed at one another and Tom said,

"Sure thing! That'd be great!"

"This is so cool! I bet you guys have a bunch of strategies for Drome matches!" Criss laughed and held up his Code Scanner, "See you guys tomorrow!" And he ported out. Tom, Kaz, Sarah, and Peyton all stared at the spot where he'd vanished, flooded with feelings of longing and nostalgia. Because they had been trapped in Perim and had never been able to port out, they could never return their memories of Perim to their real words selves. As their real world selves had grown older, their connection to their Chaotic sevles—their younger selves—had become strained and eventually snapped. That was when their Codes had been imprinted upon Perim's energies and left them trapped there, forever teenagers.

"He's okay." Peyton said with a small smile.

"Totally." Kaz agreed and then looked towards the cave entrance, "I miss Chaotic."

"We all do." Sarah said, "But at least we got to help the tribes fix Perim after the M'arrilians were defeated."

"And saw Maxxor and Intress' son take the throne." Tom added, smiling in a strained sort of way, "Mhariss…he knows what he's doing…he's…a great guy. Just like his dad." Tom swallowed, "I wish Maxxor were still around…"

"Everybody's gotta go on sometime, Tommy." Peyton murmured, "Even Prince Mudeenu and Queen Alexia have gone too."

"But they left behind some great kids." Sarah ran her fingers through her golden hair and it shimmered eerily in the sunlight, translucent as it was, "And we've gotten to watch them grow up into great leaders."

"Yeah…" Kaz muttered, still looking out of the cave without really seeing it, "And Terlin's a cool girl too…but I…" He pushed his glasses up his nose and they caught the sunlight, hiding his brown eyes from the rest of the group, "Sometimes I wish we could just port out of here, like we used to. I kind of miss the way things used to be; the Port Court, the food, the Drome matches, hanging out…"

"Kaz, you're doing it again." Tom muttered.

"Huh? What?" Kaz looked around at his 'ghostly' companions, "Oh. Aheh, sorry." He rubbed a hand over his face, blushing.

"You've gone emo in your old age." Peyton teased and Kaz snapped back at him playfully. The four friends started bickering good-naturedly among one another, laughing and picking.

They were memories of a time of chaos

They were pieces people who had seen Perim at its worst.

They were remnants of what had been.

They were ghosts of players past.

I don't know about you guys, but I really liked this one. Talk about awesome. I guess this could have become a full length somehow but I like it better as a stand alone.

Oh, yeah, and Terlin is Chaor and Takinom's daughter. Tee hee. Since I have Cerberus in Nice To Be Loved, I wanted the UW heir in here to be female. Girl power! Hoo-rah! I'm just biased. Probably because I'm a girl. Yeah, that's probably why.
Anywho…

There's that. I like it. You don't have to but I would appreciate it if you left a review. I don't think people have noticed this yet. But I think I want to draw a picture of this drabble…