The Adventures of Valkyrja
Author's Note:
You've read the tags, don't like, don't read. Simple as that. I wrote this for myself.
No idea if I'll ever continue this. After spending two years on my last book(and three on the one before that), I'm just doing simple, easy things I enjoy for right now. No pressure, no commitment, no promises, just writing what I want when I want. Haven't had this mindset since I started writing like a decade ago. It feels nice.
I have another Chaotic one-shot: "A day with his Kween" it's Tom x Sarah, go read it.
Chapter 1:
Astrid was thirteen when her life changed forever, when she realized something was terribly wrong, wrong with her. It took four long years of therapist visits, doctor appointments and countless hours refusing to look at herself in the mirror to figure out what it was. And just one surgery for everyone to leave her.
She had been born in the body of a boy, given the name Alex, and expected to conform to rules she never agreed to.
Alex was trans, and, after four years of therapy, gender confirmation surgery, and six months of voice training, Alex returned to her school after summer break ready to finally be who she was and embrace being a girl in public.
But her classmates had other ideas.
Astrid had never exactly been popular before her transition— she had actually been extremely susceptible to being bullied— but now it was like she had the plague. Boys thought she was ugly or freakish and avoided her, while girls grew suspicious of her when she used the bathroom she was always supposed to use.
Not everyone had treated her that way, of course. There were still a few loyal friends and kind strangers that didn't treat her any differently, but they alone weren't enough for Astrid to feel accepted— much less safe— at school.
So she fell back into a game she had played while recovering from her surgery: Chaotic.
Astrid had randomly stumbled across the card game on sale at a gas station one day a few years after it initially came out and decided what the heck? She wouldn't be able to leave her room for a few weeks after her surgery, so she'd need something to keep her occupied and she had already beaten all her old video games. Plus, they were on sale, so even better.
So she bought two starter decks, took them home, scanned through the rules, and played against herself.
And, just like that, she was hooked.
She had never been that big into card games before— only collecting Pokémon cards and never actually playing the correct way—, but there was something that captivated Astrid about the game that she couldn't understand. It could have been the artwork on the cards, the small text on the cards that hinted at lore, the connection with magic and music that she had found really interesting, or the variety of attacks and battlegear. She couldn't tell what she loved about the game exactly, but after her surgery she was practically bedridden for two weeks, so she played. She came up with a dozen strategies, changed up her battleplan a hundred times, and couldn't get enough.
It was a week or so in when Astrid— through looking up more about the game— found the online battles and quickly joined. And, just like that, she was hooked all the more.
Now, six months after her surgery and first playing Chaotic, Astrid had spent all of her limited allowance money on cards and all her free time playing the game, even to the detriment of her school work or extracurricular activities. She played online during English class, practiced strategizing instead of paying attention in Calculus, and sat at a corner table during lunch with her cards, notebook and laptop out.
Astrid had just destroyed someone online with her favorite Creature, Aivenna, winning the third match of the day. She was just about to close her laptop to take advantage of her last three minutes of lunch to quickly eat, when a message popped up on her screen, alerting her.
"Chaotic mail?" Astrid asked aloud, stuffing some cold, shipped in pizza in her mouth. Opening her laptop, she found a string of numbers and letters, a code. With only a minute left before passing period, Astrid quickly typed the code into her scanner, and, as the bell rang, entered it, not knowing that a perfect, digital copy of her was currently falling on her butt from being transported while sitting down.
"Crap," Astrid mumbled, rubbing her backside before realizing she was not in the chattering school cafeteria anymore. "What the hell?"
"Greetings, Valkyrja." A robotic voice said, making her look up to find; a robot. How very astute she was. "Welcome to Chaotic. If you would please follow me, your first match begins in five minutes-"
"Where am I? What's going on? What are you?" She demanded in rapid fire, looking around in every direction like an out of control lighthouse. "Was there another gas leak in the science lab? That's it, it has to be. I'm lightheaded from breathing in the fumes and-"
"I can assure you, Valkyrja," the floating robot said firmly. "You are not hallucinating. Your code has been transported to Chaotic where you can battle other players, trade, and even port your code to Perim."
"I-" Astrid started, but had no idea how to finish the sentence. "What?"
"Please follow me," the robot continued. "I will show you to the Battle Drome and explain everything further on the way."
So, Astrid went against all the sci-fi movies she had ever seen and decided to listen to and follow the talking robot.
A few minutes later, Astrid was shown into a large dome building and stopped at the center before a large holographic screen. "It's the same as the online screen." She mumbled in realization. "But is it VR or-"
"So, the Codemasters gave me another newbie to crush. Another free win, lucky me."
Astrid looked to the voice, not even realizing in her fascination that there was someone else in the circular room with her. He was a few years older than her, probably around twenty-two or twenty-three, was really thin and tall, with large, pink tinted glasses and blond hair and goatee. He was also looking Astrid up and down like she was a piece of meat, which made her immediately not like him.
His head tilted, pausing his evaluation. "Your face… looks a little weird." He said, not at all subtle. He looked her over again. "What's your name?"
"Astrid," she said, watching as his eyebrows shot up at hearing her voice. Even after months of vocal training, once she opened her mouth, she wasn't passable, her voice dropped too early when she was a boy. But she didn't let it bother her as much as it used to. There was nothing she could do about it, she knew that.
"What with your voice?" He asked rudely. "It's all like hoarse or something…? What-"
"Are you my opponent?" Astrid cut in, wanting to end that conversation before it had the chance to begin. "We battle each other here in Chaotic, right?"
The guy grinned, an ugly look. "Not the usual clueless newbie, but a newbie nonetheless." He docked his scanner on a podium before him. "Let's get this over, newbie, I have a hot date after this."
Astrid really doubted that, but decided to not say anything.
"So how do we play? I want to beat you already, whatever your name is."
"Klay." He told her, smirking. "And don't be so eager to be beaten, girlie."
"Do we play on this screen?" Astrid asked, looking around for her laptop or cards that she suddenly realized she didn't have with her. "Is this thing connected to my online account or something-"
"You'll see," Klay said. "Just dock your scanner on that podium there."
Astrid did so and jumped back in surprise when the screen burst to life with giant copies of her cards. "Whoa, my entire deck is here."
"Yeah, yeah, it's really cool." He mocked, already selecting his cards from the look of it. "Just hurry up and pick your deck, I was serious about that date."
Tentatively tapping the screen, Astrid realized that it was exactly like the online controls. "How big are we making our battle teams?"
"For your first match," a computer voice said from somewhere all around them. "You will be competing in a one on one match so you can get used to the unique battle experience."
"A one on one?" Astrid repeated. It sounded easy enough. She was more comfortable with full six on six teams that relied on specific card synergy, but she had had plenty of one on one matches before. Astrid quickly scrolled through her Creature deck, looking for one very special card in particular. Her go-to Creature and ace. She quickly equipped the Creature with Battlegear and selected her locations. Her chosen Creature couldn't use Mugic, and while that technically gave her an advantage, she had never lost with her before.
"Ready." Astrid said, finishing her battle team. "Who attacks first?"
"Valkyrja," the automated voice said from all around them. "Since this is your first match here in Chaotic, you will be the first attacker."
"Sweetness."
"Please select your attacking and targeting Creature." The voice said, "and press your hand to the icon of your card."
"Alright," Astrid said, having only one choice. "Aivenna attacks Magmon!" She said, pressing her hand onto the icon of her Aivenna card.
That's when it got weird.
Really weird.
Before Astrid knew what was happening, she was transforming, growing taller and taller until she towered over her regular body. Her skin turned purplish-red and her blonde hair turned white. And, before she knew it, she was clad in golden armor that showed off her stomach and thighs. Bringing her hands to her face, Astrid let out a high scream. "WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!"
"Heh, heh." Klay laughed, slamming his hand onto his Magmon card. "This'll be easier than I thought." And right before Astrid's eyes, Klay transformed into a hulking monster of fire and brimstone: Magmon.
"Aivenna versus Magmon in the Forest of Life." The computer voice said, the air around Astrid starting to glow with white light. "Let the battle begin."
"Battle?!"
"You're going down!" Klay roared as Magmon. "Let's get chaotic!"
"What is with all these frickin' leaves!" Astrid mumbled, pushing herself through yet another bush. She had no idea what was going on. One minute, she was in the cafeteria at school crushing matches online, and the next thing she knows, she's been transported to some other world, transformed into Aivenna, and set into what sounded like a death match with a smarmy pervert named Klay who turned into Magmon.
Astrid had always thought Mondays were out to get her, but this was a little ridiculous.
She didn't know how, but she was actually in The Forest of Life, as her favorite Creature of all time, Aivenna. If the situation was any different, she'd probably be astounded to be Aivenna and be a beautiful, perfect, badass warrior woman, but she was a little too weirded out and worried about fighting a monster like Magmon.
A ball of fire shot at her from through the wall of bushes.
Astrid jumped away nimbly like it had been choreographed. Rolling to her feet in one motion, she fired back an attack in the same direction, before realizing what she had just done.
Woah, she thought. How did I do that? No, wait, it wasn't me who did that, it was Aivenna! Cool!
"So I see you're finally understanding how things work around here," Klay barked as Magmon, crashing through a stand of trees, ablaze. "But it doesn't matter, you're code either way! Flame Orb!"
Astrid, no, Aivenna vaulted out of the way with a series of flawless acrobatic flips and spins, launching herself off of trees and over Magmon's fiery head. She landed without a sound and darted into the trees a second later.
How do I access my Attack deck? Astrid asked herself. Aivenna attacked on her own, but how do I-
Magmon burst through the brush, sending ball of flame after ball of flame at her. It was too quick, too sudden, she didn't have time to dodge! How did she activate her Battlegear? She needed her-
A dark green tunic shimmered to life over her torso, and the flames bounced harmlessly off the shimmering green shield of energy that encircled her.
"Sweetness."
"An Evergreen Tunic, huh?" Magmon asked, looking both mildly impressed and annoyed. "Well, we'll see how much damage it can take before it's code!" He sent a powerful Rockwave at her, and Astrid was barely able to jump clear in time.
What is wrong with me? Astrid asked as she ran. Normally Aivenna would be the one sending Magmon running for the hills, not the over way around. I need to get back into her head, be Aivenna, and crush this loser.
Coming to a halt on a low branch, Astrid focused on the mind of Aivenna, letting her show her what to do.
Magmon went barreling past below her, and Astrid leapt off the branch. "Piercing Brilliance!"
Magmon shouted out in surprise and pain, stumbling back like an oversized toddler.
"Power Pulse!"
"Lavalanche!" Astrid nimbly dodged the attack with ease, and followed up with a series of quick attacks. Magmon stumbled back, tripping over a large tree root that was as thick around as a garbage bin.
Astrid ran forward, "Power Pulse!"
Magmon burst into millions of bits of code, and Astrid suddenly found herself back in the Argentina dome room, quickly turning back to her normal body.
"That. Was. AWESOME!" Astrid yelled, jumping up and pumping her fist. "Is every battle like that here?"
"You cheated- somehow!" Klay accused. "There is no way that a newbie was able to beat me without taking a single point of damage! She- she must have hacked her Scanner or-"
"Would you like to file an official complaint with the Council of Codemasters against Valkyrja, Klayotic?" The automated voice asked from somewhere in the ceiling.
Klay went deep red, snatched his Scanner off the podium, and stormed out. "There's no point," he mumbled as he left. "The Codemasters all have favorites." Then he was gone.
"What's a Codemaster?" Astrid asked the disembodied voice.
"The Codemasters are the strongest players in Chaotic," it answered. "Each Codemaster controls a Battle Drome, and, if a player wins seven matches in their Drome, they challenge them."
"What do you win if you beat one?"
"Ultra Rare Location scans from their personal decks. This will allow you to port to said new location and scan never before seen Creatures, Mugic and Battlegear."
"Awesome."
"If that is all, Valkyrja, please exit the Battle Drome for the next match. If you have any questions, please ask a robot around the port court."
"Um, okay. Thanks, spooky robot voice." She said as she left, but received no reply. With no other idea what to do, Astrid headed to the closest crowd of people hanging out at what looked like a giant food court. A food court with enormous screens showing matches and dozens of flying robots delivering food and drinks to kids and teenagers who milled around.
Well, she thought. Might as well see if the food here is any better than at school.
With that, Astrid's Chaotic journey began.
To be continued?
Author's Note
If you made it this far, lemme know what you thought about this chapter. I have Astrid's entire six Creature(plus Battlegear) battle team thought up, so if I continue this, maybe you'll get to see them all? Lemme know if you want this to continue, and if I feel it, I will.
Fun Fact: Astrid's Tribe is Overworld, but she does use a select few Underworlders from time to time.