? P.O.V

I sighed as I paced around the ground floor of the house, watching as the clock ticked by, waiting for my parents to get home. So far it had been not even twenty minutes since they had gone shopping, and already Ellie was complaining about not being able to go out with her friends, neither of our parents liking it when we went out on our own while they were out, that, combined with Ellie's friends not enjoying my company meant that the both of us were stuck in the house until they got back. I was eventually able to pry my eyes away from the ticking clock and began to head up the stairs, taking each step carefully as I walked towards Ellie's room, already knowing how she was going to complain. I loosely tugged on my red fingerless gloves, the bright red of them helping to remind me of how new they were, my friend Robbie got them for me since I complained about thorns getting into the palm of my hands when Mum forced me to pull weeds out of the garden, it felt nice to have a friend like him,,, now... onto trouble...

"Ryaaaaaan! When are Mum and Dad going to be back? I want to go out with the girls later today..." I heard Ellie complain from her room, directing her whining towards me due to the echo of my footsteps sounding loud in comparison to the lack of noise, alerting her to my coming presence. I couldn't help but to sigh a little and shake my head, causing my short dark brown hair and bangs to shake along with my head. I swear, sometimes you would be unable to tell that Ellie and I were twins at times. While she was, for lack of a better term, a 'movie' girl, as in a movie's portrayal of a stereotypical girl, not a girl that likes movies. I was much more of a... well, nerd. Where Ellie prioritises fun and her own enjoyment, I prioritise learning and getting good grades... leading to personality conflicts between us, but I still love Ellie deeply, so I just put up with her personality.

"Ellie, Mum and Dad will be back when they are finished with shopping. They do this every other week, you should know this by now." I said with a sigh in my voice as I walked into Ellie's room, letting me see that Ellie had, finally, cleaned her room up. If there was at least one 'good' point about her hanging out with her 'girls' then it was that she finally cleaned up her room whenever she had a planned outing with them, otherwise she just leaves gloves, trash and blankets all around the room. I also took the time to note her appearance, something she always changed with each outing to stay' unique' as she put it. Currently she had a bandage on her right cheek, the result of an accident yesterday, and was dressed in a short, dark blue top that showed off her midriff, a black, open, short sleeved jacket going over it, doing nothing to cover up her torso anymore than her shirt did. She also wore pants that I guess were... jeans? I wasn't too knowledgeable on the types of pants and how to tell them apart. But the pants hugged her form, something she always seemed to go for on these outings... I think she said it was to attract attention... oh... she's ranting at me again... great... what to think about to block her out...

"Ryan!" Ellie shouted before she threw a plush cat she kept nearby her pillow, a childhood toy she refused to get rid of, only hide when her 'girls' came over, at my face, forcing my attention back towards her as she pouted at me, annoyed and knowing full well that I paid zero attention to what she had said "Can't you at least pretend to have an interest in my complaints?" Not really, I would say what came next wasn't some form of petty revenge on Ellie... but then I would really just be lying to myself

"Oh, I am sooo sorry my dearest sister. I will pay attention to every word you have to say from now on." I, of course, only used the most fitting tone for my statement. Complete, and utter sarcasm the likes only someone with less than zero cares could talk with, because honestly, most of the time that Ellie would use my as a complaining tool, she would be talking about things I neither understood or had any desire to. And I made sure that our brown eyes connected in a way that drove that point home even more than my tone already had.

"Oh shove it." Ellie grumbled back at me, making me crack a smirk as I chuckled and began to take a step closer, almost immediately jumping back and lifting my left leg and hissing in pain, what the hell had my leg hit? I was nowhere near the bed and besides the plush that Ellie had thrown, there should have been nothing in my way "Oh great, and now my phone's froze... Ryan?" Ellie started to complain before she noticed me hopping and hissing as I sent a glare towards what I hit before I froze in surprise... how the seven hells was the plush just... floating in place... no, not floating... it was... frozen in place... nothing was moving at all, not the tail, not the paws and not even the ears... it was completely frozen in the air

"This... I... I... I think more than your phone is frozen..." I muttered quietly, my voice barely above a whisper as I looked further down, seeing that my shoe prints were imbedded into the carpet of the floor, my surprise and seeming fear causing Ellie to hop off of her bed, her bare feet touching the floor but not moving the carpet... no flattening, it just... stood on edge, causing her to yelp and hop back onto her bed, the mattress not moving in the slightest from how it was before she hopped off of it

"Ryan, what is happening ? Why is everything...frozen?" Ellie asked in fear before she let out a scream of pain, clutching tightly at her left wrist, startling me at first before I went into what we both called 'Brother Mode'. I ignored everything being frozen to instead run over to her side and try to help her as tears came to the sides of her eyes. I had no idea what was happening to her, or what she was feeling, but I wanted to help her. "My arm... it burns..." Ellie whined, this time getting no mocking from me as I grab onto her right hand and move it away from her wrist, allowing us both to see as what could only be described as an icy blue 'watch' formed on her wrist... suddenly I could only gasp and grip my own left wrist, an almost indescribable pain radiating through my entire arm, originating from my wrist as I tried my best not to scream... I could not scream, not in front of Ellie.

"It... looks like a... watch..." I manage to grunt out between moments where if I had allowed myself to open my mouth, I would have screamed, and one look into Ellie's tear filled eyes let me realise that we both knew it... this pain, if I had to describe it... well, it was like having something rip apart my arm from the very inside, invading through my wrist as it tore muscle and bone apart, all while setting it ablaze and watching the fire burn once it had torn the arm apart. By now Ellie's watch had fully formed, my own one, same in design but orange in colour was gaining its strap, the face of Ellie's watch showed a picture of a crescent moon with a love heart in the middle of the gap created by the crescent. My watch began to form it's own head, the pain dying down to just an ache as Ellie and I stared at the head, the 'picture' of the watch being a roaring lion with a police badge of some kind in the middle of the mouth.

"W-what are these things?" Ellie stuttered out, scared out of her mind, and I couldn't really blame her, I was close to freaking out myself. I was only focusing on being strong for Ellie so she didn't have a breakdown of some kind. Out of nowhere time seemingly freezes and after extreme pain, these watches formed on our wrists... what would be next... a portal...? "Ahhh! Behind you!" Ellie shouted in fear, causing me to turn around and curse me and my big mouth... after all... it was a portal... of course it was... what was this, some Isekai anime? Before I could even get in a final word, the portal flashed towards us, forcing Ellie and I both through it, the last thing I managed to see and hear before darkness over took me was a flash of green leaves and the sound of the wind along with a mechanical voice...

"Digital-Device ID: D1G1-S41FT-J accepted. Digital-Device ID: D1G1-S41FT-L accepted." The voice had said, coming from somewhere near us... somehow saying the two phrases at the same time before I fell unconscious... unable to know if Ellie was conscious as well or not...

? P.O.V Unknown Time Earlier

I smirked a little as I stared at Cherry, putting my hands up into a fighting position as my best friend wiped the sweat off her brow, her short pink her was wet with sweat, same as mine was. The two of us were dressed in basic sparring attire, well, for us anyway. The attire was a simple Karate-Style robe as we fought together in the back yard. We had taken to testing out both self defense and movie-style fighting techniques together about three years ago, it had helped us bond as friends and get stronger. Cherry and I had similar personalities at times, maybe it was due to us being friends for so long that we had just rubbed off on each other, but what ever caused it I wouldn't trade my best friend for anyone. Right now we were having one of our spars in the backyard, so far we had been going for about an hour to an hour and a half and we were both getting tired. It was merely a matter of who would give in first... and I was tempted to s-

"Alright, you win this time Axel..." Cheery sighed as she wiped her brow again, her pink bangs sticking to her forehead and in disarray, contrasting how she usually had two gangs of her framing her face with the other bangs combed over towards those bangs, a style which surprisingly brought out the blue in her light blue eyes... but her surrendering made things a lot easier on my pride to say the least. That was one of our key differences, pride. Cherry was a much more humble person than I was, and could easily admit when people were better or had one... I on the other hand am more stubborn and I will refuse to quit... It's something I'm working on honestly...

"Hehe, looks like we still have to do some more sparring before you can take me on, huh?" I asked, dropping my hands down before wiping my brow down of sweat as we began to head back into the house, two towels being placed nearby the door just for wiping sweat away once we were both done with our sparring. We usually did our sparring while waiting for my little sister to get home, which she should arrive back soon as Cherry and I parted to different rooms to dry off our sweat and get redressed into our clothing. I quickly got dressed into a red, short sleeved shirt, a black long sleeved jacket with the left sleeve being torn off above the elbow, something I decided I liked the look of after it happened, as well as some teal blue, long legged trousers and white socks with my red and black shoes. Before I leave, I wrap a brown belt around my waist to help keep my pants up as I stretched before leaving the room and waiting for Cherry to come out, waiting by the front door, where my little sister would come through.

Not even ten minutes later, Cherry walked out of her temporary change room, her sparring attire folded up under her arm as she put it down on a chair nearby and stretched out a little. Cherry was currently wearing a pale pink, short sleeved shirt under a short sleeved purple-pink jacket. She wore long, legged pants that were a dark purple in colour, pink fingerless gloves that went up to her elbows as well as black socks and pink and white shoes. The clothing wasn't something she would usually wear, especially not in the quantity of purples and pinks in it, she was already teased about her hair colour between the both of us, us being Alice and I. But she had lost a bet with me, and so I forced her to wear clothing the same colour as her hair or close to it for a week, currently she is on day six, so going good for her.

"Don't say anything at all Axel, I am already upset with you about... this." Cherry grumbled out as she tugged on her shirt and glared at the colour before raising her glare towards me, as if telling me she would see that she got me back for what I made her do, although the door was interrupted by the front door opening behind me and a force hitting me in the back as two small arms wrapped around me

"Big Brother!" A young voice that I recognised instantly as I smiled and laughed, using my hands to interrupt the being's hold as I turned around to face my little sister, Alice. She was only ten years old, compared to my and Cherry's age of eighteen, so she was quite a bit smaller than I was, which allowed me to notice almost instantly that Alice was wearing one of my older jackets from when I was fifteen years old, it was a faded brown colour with sleeves that easily engulfed her hands and hung off of her hands, the jacket also covered up her white, school shirt and navy blue skirt, making me chuckle softly as I picked her up

"Alice, are you wearing my jacket?" I asked her, causing her to puff up her cheeks and turn her head away, making me tilt my head before I sighed in amusement and rolled my eyes softly "Hello my dear little sister, how was your day? And are you wearing my jacket?" I asked her once more, making Alice beam happily as I put her back down onto the ground as her bright green eyes, a feature we both shared, much like our brown hair, which she had in a more long 'bowl-cut' style with a white duck hairpin keeping some hair out of her eyes.

"Hehehe, yep! I took you with me to school Big Brother! Your jacket is really warm... can I keep it?" Alice asked, giving me her best version of her 'Cutesy Submit Stare'. A phrase she and Cherry coined after Alice used it to get me to give her some money... which she used to buy sweets... but I wasn't really mad about it to be fair, who could? My sister was just too cute to get made at. That said, I think she can have my old jacket, I wasn't using it anyway. It had nothing to do with the stare... yep, absolutely nothing to do with the bright green eyes cutely gleaming with the request held deep within them on repeat that seemed to melt my will... it was purely that she liked it and I had no need of it, and that is my story-I mean the truth... it was the truth... I swear...

"Sure, I don't really have any need for it anymore, so you can keep it with you Alice. I hope that it keeps you nice and warm." I smiled as I ruffled Alice's hair up, making the ten year old pout as she began to take her brown boots off before smiling mischievously and jumping towards me, of course I noticed it out of the corner of my eye, making me smirk before Alice seemed to just... freeze in the air, not moving in the slightest... Before I could think on it too much, I hear Cherry scream out in surprise and pain before I let out a gasp of my own, a searing pain in my arm bringing me to my knees while gripping my left wrist, Cherry was using a nearby wall to support herself. The pain seemed worse due to the already fading but present soreness that seemed to drive the pain to be worse. It felt as if my arm was being stabbed, ripped apart and being lit on fire... by igniting vinegar that was poured onto the wound. somehow I was unable to pass out due to the pain, the same seemed to go with Cherry, who's existence I barely noticed in the storm of pain I was feeling. After what felt like an eternity, the pain began to fade, just as suddenly as it came, it was gone, but now, there was a strange purple and black watch on my wrist. The watch head held a fire surrounded by what seemed like a hail storm to the left, a thunder storm to the right, some kind of black fire to the bottom of it and blue fire to the top of the face...

"What... is this?" Cherry asked me as she panted, showing me her left wrist, which had a very light green and black version of the same watch I now had on, the watch on Cherry being placed over her gloves, the head of it having the head of an orange Maine Coon surrounded by fires that seemed to be made out of light on the left and darkness on the right, with a strange greyness between the two at the point of contact on the top and bottom of the head... Cherry asked a good question I didn't know... what were these things and... crap!

"Watch out!" I shouted just as Cherry began to fall into a hole that suddenly opened up under her, acting quickly, I grabbed onto her wrist, with my left arm... not my best choice, but that doesn't matter right now. I just have to pull Cherry out of the hole and... is it getting bigger? "Crap buckets!" I screamed out as I held onto Cherry tightly as the hole opened up to drop me into it along with her... two mechanical voices talking at the same time

"Digital Device ID: D1G1-S41FT-D accepted. Digital Device ID: D1G1-S41FT-P accepted." The voices said as I felt my eyes begin to get heavy all of a sudden. But having a younger sibling around had made me a bit of an easy waker, so I managed to keep myself up long enough for the two of us to be spat out of the hole and dropped into a small clearing of some kind, two more holes dropping out two people each... I only had enough time to see their hair colours before I fell unconscious like Cherry and the other four... two had dark brown and orange hair... while the other two... had... red and... and black hair...