Author's note: Hey, I'm Mcbayden, co-author of this story. You know the main author of this story being GameBreaker05, and he still is! He just wanted some help writing the chapters for this story, and I offered my assistance to do this amazing story idea justice, so that's why this chapter looks so different from the last. He actually provides the main ideas and deserves all the credit, I just write it out in a more detailed form for the chapter and help with some bits and pieces here and there. Just a quick note for the readers, and now ladies and gentlemen, enjoy!
Chapter 2: The Doctor is in!
As soon as the intrepid traveler had landed, he instantly got to his feet and fixed his bowtie, before brushing himself off as he looked around the room. The room itself looked like architecture from the past, medieval era to be exact. Stone walls and old columns supporting the floor above, it definitely felt like he was transported to the past in some way. On the floor he was standing on was some sort of symbol, ancient and magical looking. If he had anything to go by at the moment… "no no no it can't be, there's no such thing as magic!" The Doctor thought in the moment, there had to be some sort of explanation for this. But before he could think on it more, something caught his attention, several strange men in front of him, who were dressed in what seemed to be odd black robes. And beside him were three young men, all of them holding a different weapon in their hand, and all of them seemingly of japanese descent.
First was a dirty blonde haired teen in a prep school-like uniform, who held a bow in one of his hands. The next one was another teen who had black short hair and wore a blue sweater, black pants and shirt. The teen himself was holding a sword, and seemed to be staring at the cloaked individuals in contempt. And the last of the young men was a golden blond haired young man with his hair in a ponytail, who wore a casual red over shirt over a white under shirt, and light brown pants. This one held a spear in his hands, and from the looks of it seemed to be the oldest of the three. When he was finished with looking over these young people, he looked over himself and saw that a shield was attached to his right hand. Funnily enough, he thought these items that he and the other three had were oddly similar looking to those he read about in that book. If he could guess at this moment, in which he's usually correct, then the four of them were brought here to fill in the roles as those heroes.
Then the silence was broken though, when one of the cloaked men came forward, looking desperate and said "It worked, the ritual has worked! Please oh brave heroes, save our world!"
"What do you mean by saving your world?" The young teen with the bow asked
"Suffice it to say, you are the cardinal heroes of the legendary weapons, summoned here by an ancient ritual. Our world is teetering on the brink of destruction, so we beg of you oh brave heroes, please lend us your aid." the cloaked man would respond with.
This intrigued the Doctor, saving the world again? It's like he's going from one disaster to another. It's not like he couldn't handle it though, he'd actually prefer that compared to just sitting around and waiting… and waiting… and waiting for something to happen. It would be absolutely BORING, and he couldn't stand boredom. It was bad enough when he had to stand around with Vincent van Gogh doing nothing while waiting for an invisible hunter, he didn't want it to get worse. Plus, he's saved earth before plenty of times, he's got experience with this sort of thing. And he couldn't just say no.
So the Doctor would show a reassuring smile, saying to the cloaked man that came forward "Well, I can never turn down helping someone. I'll-"
"Absolutely not."
The Doctor was interrupted by the Black haired teen, which made the Doctor flinch back a bit with how quickly he reacted. He couldn't say he blamed the young teen, this would be pretty intense for any normal person, and the Doctor was definitely not a normal person.
The other teen with dirty blonde hair would also cut in saying "I also refuse."
Then the young man with the spear said to the cloaked men "You can send us back to our world right? Do that and we'll consider helping you."
The black haired teen would then raise his sword against the cloaked man, saying in an aggravated tone "You brought the four of us here without our consent, don't you feel the least bit guilty about it?"
The Doctor would then immediately lower the boy's sword away from the cloaked guys while saying "Woah woah woah, no need to get so violent here. Let's just talk… alright? Yeah."
The black haired teen would look at the Doctor for a moment, scoffing and then looking away while saying "Fine."
The Bow wielder would then pipe up, saying "That man is right, but to be perfectly honest, if you throw us out as soon as we restore peace, we'd have done all that work for nothing."
The Doctor would then look a bit confused before hearing the young man with the spear say "How willing are you to accommodate our requests? depending on your answer, we may end up as your enemies instead of your allies."
The Doctor would then step out in front of the three, simply asking out of curiosity "Why does that matter? If we're heroes, we don't need to ask for rewards, do we?"
The spear user would then respond with "We were taken from our homes, don't you think we should at least get some kind of benefit here?"
Before anyone else could say anything, the man in the cloak in front of them would say to them "Good sirs, before I say anymore, we'd like you to have an audience with the king of Melromarc. You can negotiate your rewards with him directly, so please."
In the next moment, the sword wielding teen would respond with an indifferent "Alright, fine." And would follow the cloaked man to where he was going.
The bow-wielding teen would also say "I suppose we'll consider their offer." And followed after the sword wielder.
And the spear hero would respond nonchalantly "Sure, doesn't matter who we talk to, our demands won't change." And followed after the two, leaving the Doctor by his lonesome.
"Well, this isn't the best way to start out in this new place, but it isn't the worst!" The Doctor thought, in terms of how good or bad this introduction to a new place was… he'd give it about a 6.5 out of 10. Then again, he probably shouldn't be picky about how this turned out. He was alive, and frankly that was fine for him. He then immediately left this summoning room to go after the other heroes, since he didn't want to be left behind. He quickly caught up to them, seeing them staring out a window on the left side of the spiral staircase.
"Wow… check out the view!" The spear wielder would comment, seemingly gassed by whatever sight he was beholding.
"It looks like something out of a postcard." The sword wielder would also say, and the Doctor was about to find out how true these remarks were.
When the Doctor would approach the window and look out of it, he would see a beautiful town below. And further beyond the town were fields of grass, leading to an enchanting forest. This would be so perfect to explore, find new things to learn, it was like a fantasy world had come to life.
The Doctor would respond to the others with "This world looks amazing, I can't wait anymore to do some adventuring!" But soon, the group would leave the spiral staircase as they went ahead and resumed following the cloaked figure, who was taking them to see the king of this castle.
Throne room, castle of Melromarc.
When the four arrived at the throne room, they would try to take in the large and very decorated space. It had a much grander feeling than the very dark and creepy feeling summoning room, and the throne room seemed to have people here, both on the ground floor and on the floor above. The people themselves watching the four in curiosity seemed to be nobles or rich folk, they looked to be interested in what heroes were summoned. In all honesty, the Doctor didn't really seem to be interested much in what they thought at the moment, he just wanted a better explanation from the king on why he and the others were brought here.
He would then scan his eyes over the king, who was sitting on his throne. He wore royal robes that befit a king such as himself, which had a theme of purple. And on his head sat a crown, with a beautiful purple jewel placed in its center. The king himself seemed to be an old man, having long white hair and a short white beard. Near him was what seemed to be his royal advisor, and his guards lined up beside the heroes.
Soon, the king would speak, saying to the heroes "So, you people are the cardinal heroes of ancient legend? This is the land of Melromarc, and I am her king, Aultcray Melromarc the 32nd. Welcome brave heroes, please identify yourselves."
And introduce themselves they would, with the first one to start being the teen wielding the sword. "Ren Amaki, I'm a highschool student and I'm 16 years old." He said, though he sounded pretty uninterested, even monotone to the Doctor.
The next one to introduce themself was the spear wielder, who would proceed with "I'm Motoyasu Kitamura, College student, 21." He sounded a bit more excitable than Ren, and a lot more cocky too.
And the third one to introduce themselves would be the bow wielder. "I suppose I'm up next, Itsuki Kawasumi, still in high school and I'm 17." He would say. He definitely was one of the calmer of the individuals, and also seemed to be a bit joyful for whatever happens next.
The next and last one to introduce themselves, was the shield hero himself, the Doctor. And so, he would try to do just that, starting with "And then there was one, hello, I'm-"
"Good, Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki."
The Doctor was interrupted again, this time like he wasn't even there. It made the Doctor feel a bit left out, and the way the king ignored him like that, you'd think that he'd at least have a bit of courtesy.
So he would say to the king "Umm, sir? I don't mean to be rude, but I think you might have missed me."
The king would look a bit surprised, but would quickly respond with "Ah, oh yes forgive me. Please young man, if you could introduce yourself."
The way it sounded was off, the Doctor could just hear the insincerity in his voice. "Was there some kind of negative bias for the shield hero? Strange… I need to read up on the history of this world to know more." The Doctor thought, but that would come later. For now, he needed to get this over with.
He would then say humbly as he introduced himself "Please, there's no need to worry. I'm the Doctor by the way, just the Doctor."
The king and the other three heroes were confused a bit by what he said.
"The Doctor? What's your real name though man?" Motoyasu would ask.
"Now that's a secret that can't be told. Though I don't think it should matter too much, do you?" The three would look between each other, nodding and agreeing that it wasn't that much of a big deal. Sure they didn't get a real name, but at this point, any sort of name would be fine.
Then, the king would announce "Now then, I suppose I need to explain why we brought you here."
And so, the king would begin to explain the situation that has befallen the land. Roughly every month, there are waves that attack the world and bring massive devastation, and without the legendary heroes… they would be doomed. The waves can be stopped by the legendary heroes, and only them. There was a dragon hourglass in each country of the world that would predict when the next wave would happen, which is why they know the waves happen every month or so. Before the heroes arrived, the first wave had already begun, and it wrought destruction through the entire country within minutes. And what was worse, was that the next waves would be even harder than the last. The next wave will arrive in about a month soon, and now they must prepare.
When the Doctor heard of this, the first thought in his mind was how bad he felt that these people had to deal with these waves of catastrophe. No amount of reasoning could justify why these people had to suffer through so much hardship and death, and they had to rely on summoning others from different worlds, different universes which might not work out either… It was a tragedy. And because of that, it had already cemented him in this, he won't let these people suffer any longer.
One of the boys would speak up, that being Ren the sword wielder. "Okay, I think we get the gist of it. Anyway, I'm sure you didn't bring us here thinking we'd save you for free."
And here comes the rewards talk, which the Doctor thought wasn't all that interesting. But it was expected to happen, and a servant of the king from the looks of it would respond to Ren with "Of course not, once you repel all the waves, I can assure you we shall reward you most handsomely."
Motoyasu would chime into the conversation, saying with a bit of smugness "Yeah? Well, it would seem that we have no choice but to take you at your word." "Honestly, rewards mean absolutely nothing if there isn't a world to give you it. Won't you guys just let up on it for once?" The Doctor thought, as he just stared at the other three heroes with a very disapproving look.
Ren would speak up again with "As long as you don't renege, we'll work with you. But don't think for a moment that you can tame us."
Itsuki would join in with "Exactly, we won't put up with you looking down on us."
These "heroes" really did sound so entitled, if these three were the only heroes they'd got, the Doctor made the prediction that this world would have had a high chance of meeting its doom all because of them.
The king would then say to the heroes "If I can trust that we have reached an agreeable arrangement, I would ask you brave heroes to now check your statuses."
Now that was a bit curious to the Doctor. Statuses? He wouldn't know where to even find his statuses, that was until he saw the icon in the bottom right corner of his vision. It was very weird to say the least, but a weirder thing that happened was when he focused on it for a short while and a display would pop up in front of him.
"This must be the status that the king was talking about… not all that impressive." the Doctor thought, betting that he could have made a better layout than the one he was seeing. But on another note, the display in front of him showed many things:
The Doctor: level 10
Species: Time lord
Gender: Male
Equipment: Legendary Shield
XP: 0
HP: 200
MP: 120
Attack: ?
Defense: 150
Agility: 75
Dexterity: 70
Luck: ?
Magic Skill: 100
Skills:
"Regeneration". Due to Gallifreyan physiology, the user has the ability to fully heal after almost dying. Though in turn, both their personality and physical appearance change.
Amount of Regenerations left: ?/12
"Timelord Telepathy". If the user can make contact with another being's mind, the user can communicate through their minds to that being, look through their memories, induce memory loss, share experiences and more. Note: The user must make physical contact with another being through their forehead for the telepathy to work.
"Healing coma". Due to Galifreyan physiology, the user can heal from wounds and injuries that are not fatal. Though the user must not be in battle, for it induces sleep for the user while the body is healing.
It was definitely interesting to see at the very least, it was like looking at stats you'd see in a video game. Actually, it was exactly like that. He would then hear from Ituski, who was looking at his status "Level 1? Well that's really disconcerting isn't it?"
"Yeah no kidding, who can tell if we can even fight like this?" Motoyasu would say.
"They're at level 1? That's a bit weird, maybe I have a higher level due to past experiences in my universe?" The Doctor would think to himself. If what he thought of was the case, then the other three heroes who were summoned are inexperienced, which doesn't sound too good.
But soon, he would hear more talk from the king's servant on how the heroes would have to go on adventures to "Develop" their weapons and be able to fight off the waves, but that they couldn't form a party together because the weapons supposedly repel each other. And so because of that, they would need to recruit their own party members.
"Since the sun is about to set, rest here for the night and begin your quests tomorrow. In the meantime, we'll gather the best of the best to form your parties." The King would say.
soon after a maid of the castle would come in from the right of the heroes, saying to them in a very courteous manner "We have quarters prepared for you all. Please sirs, right this way."
And so, the heroes were led by the maid to their rooms for the night. The Doctor was thankful in some capacity that he had a room to stay in and study his shield, but he also had a sneaking suspicion that something was awry. What with the king's suspicious behavior, who wouldn't be a bit wary.
A few hours later, in the quarters of the heroes.
It was night by now, as a few hours ago it was dawn by the color of the sky, which was very beautiful. The Doctor would be enjoying the view of just looking at the city below, in the beautiful night sky. But he would remember something very important that he had to check: His items. He checked inside his pockets, and sighed in relief when he realized he still had the things he needed the most in it. Those items being his Sonic Screwdriver, and his Psychic paper.
If he lost these items, then he would more than likely have a very hard time doing what he did best… which was saving people. Though now with the Doctor knowing he still has his Screwdriver, he decided to scan his shield with it. The shield was a bit of an odd looking device, and it doesn't even look like it was made by human hands. As the Doctor scanned his shield, he would hear behind him in the main room the other heroes having a conversation with each other.
"I guess when you're heroes of legend, you get special treatment. The girl who showed us here was cute too." Motoyasu would say a bit too enthusiastically.
In the Doctor's opinion, he felt like Motoyasu was going to be problematic in the future, especially with the way he talked.
Itsuki would also comment as well saying "And though it did taste unusual, our dinner was quite sumptuous."
The Doctor had to admit, he wasn't particularly hungry when dinner came around, it was really delicious. It felt more natural, compared to other foods he's eaten before. But soon, the Doctor would be finished with scanning his shield and had gotten the results… which were strange.
When he read the results on his Sonic Screwdriver, the materials were left unknown, its origins unknown and was just a big mystery in general. The Doctor usually likes to have these kinds of mysteries solved, but this might've been one of those types of mysteries that should be solved later. Besides, it's no fun just to solve a mystery right away. He then decided to go back into the main room of the heroes quarters, just talk with them a bit, see what they thought of the situation so far.
He would start off by saying "Hey guys! Sorry for not joining in the conversation earlier, I was just checking something out with my shield. I have to admit, this place doesn't seem too shabby. But there's something I want to ask… what does this all seem like to you?" It was just a simple question to ask, but he felt it was a necessary thing to ask.
Motoyasu would then respond to the Doctor saying "Really man? This is just like emerald online." He was then met with a moment's silence from the others, like he was communicating in an unknown language, with him saying "Seriously? It's a huge game!"
"What are you talking about? This isn't some online game, it's a new console game I'm playing called dimension web." Itsuki would say, sounding very sure of himself.
"You're both wrong, everything about this place is identical to a VRMMO called Brave star online." Ren would chime in, also sounding just as sure as Itsuki.
"So to them, it seems similar to games they've played. Well I haven't played anything that looked like this game, but it just has a very similar look to what I've seen… wait, did one of them say VRMMO?!" The Doctor thought. Those shouldn't be a thing yet, from the time he left, VR was getting better but not to that extent. It would be way further into the future when VR was at its best.
This would make the Doctor ask Ren "By VRMMO, do you mean that literally? Like, actually fully immersive VR experiences, almost like real life?" Ren would nod in confirmation.
"Well, it can't be possible, that type of technology was only in sci-fi stuff. And from what I can understand, it can only mean one thing." Motoyasu would say.
This would be when Ren, Itsuki and the Doctor would all answer with "Parallel universes."
The three would glance at each other when they said this in much greater curiosity, with the Doctor looking excited and saying "Oooo, this is going to be interesting!"
To test out the theory that they come from different universes, the four heroes started talking about trivial things from where they're from, such as who was on the 1000 yen bill, what was the buzzword of the year, etc. Each of their answers were totally different, and totally unexpected. But because of that, this proved to each of them that the theory was correct. It was all very interesting to the Doctor, three people, coming from several very different versions of earth and all of them very different from each other.
"Well, that's interesting. I thought we were just from different eras, but it would seem not."
That's true, for a moment, the Doctor thought of that possibility too. But for the general knowledge that was shared being so different from what everyone had accounted for, it had to be the parallel universe theory.
The Doctor would then say "It's very strange to say the least, you've all played games that sound almost the exact same as this. I've sort of been in situations similar to this, but I couldn't really compare it to what I know." Then there was an awkward silence for a moment, as the other three heroes stared at the Doctor.
"You've been in situations similar to this?" Ren would ask, very curious on what the Doctor had to say.
The Doctor responded with "Well, I can't say I was summoned to different worlds to stop waves of destruction. But I have been known to save people, and just help in general. Why?"
The other three heroes would glance at each other for a moment, with Itsuki saying "Well, I just thought that because you had the shield, you probably weren't experienced or informed in some way."
"Hah! You too?" Motoyasu would chime in with. WIth Ren responding with "Well yeah, I mean it only makes sense."
The Doctor would just laugh a bit when they answered, the heroes seemed to be confused too.
This would cause Motoyasu to ask the Doctor "What's so funny about that?"
In turn, the Doctor would slowly stop laughing, gathering up in his head what he wanted to say and would answer The other three heroes with "It's a bit funny honestly, I absolutely love the shield. It protects people, saves people, sort of like an all in one tool you can have. But you don't have to kill or hurt people with it, you know? But weapons, like bows, swords and spears… their purpose is killing and hurting people. I absolutely hate that sort of thing, and I hate weapons… they make people stupid."
The room would fall silent for a moment, and each of the heroes would be in their own mood after the Doctor expressed his opinion.
Itsuki would look like he was in deep thought, sort of split on the Doctor's feelings about weapons.
Ren would just have a blank face, seemingly just staring at him. Although in some shape or form, The Doctor had a feeling that Ren agreed with him to some extent.
Motoyasu just looked annoyed, like it was the last thing he needed for the day. What confirmed this would be when he said aloud "Oh greaaat, we have a pacifist in the group, just what we need. Well, at least we don't have to be in the same party, god only knows how useless you'd be."
Motoyasu's defense was to just try and insult the Doctor, and in a very childish manner in this case. The Doctor thought that if Motoyasu was gonna be like this, it was better just to ignore him, and in turn just show the others what he meant.
Though because of that, it seemed to set off something in Motoyasu, which made him a bit more pissed off. And so, he would try to get the Doctor to talk. "Hellooo… do you hear me?"
The Doctor still wouldn't respond. This would make Motoyasu grit his teeth in frustration. Nothing would have gotten the Doctor to talk except himself, he was just waiting for the right opportunity.
Motoyasu would then lift his spear up and point it at the Doctor, in such a way that it seemed threatening, and would shout at him saying "Hey, I'm talking to you! You think you're hot shit or something?!"
Itsuki would immediately try to de-escalate the situation, trying to calm down Motoyasu. "H-Hey, take it easy. We shouldn't be fighting each other, not when there's something actually important that we have to do." Itsuki would say. He definitely seemed to be one of the voices of reason, though the Doctor wondered what Ren would do in this situation.
What surprised him was that Ren would lower Motoyasu's spear, and would say to him "Besides, would it be really worth it? All you're doing is just proving the Doctor's point." Ren would look at Motoyasu for a time, staring him in the eyes like Motoyasu was just being a disobedient child.
"...Ugh, fine! I'm not dealing with this, I'm going to bed, you can put up with his crap." Motoyasu would respond, in which he would then walk off to his chambers to get to sleep.
The room would be silent for a moment, and why wouldn't it be after such an awkward situation. The Doctor would then put his hands together, which would make a sound of a clap, and the Doctor would begin to break the silence. "Welp… that was enlightening."
Ituski would rub the back of his head nervously, responding to the Doctor saying "Well, I sort of agree with you in some sense. But…" And soon, silence would fill the room again. Though this felt less awkward, more like them thinking about what to say next.
"We should probably get to bed already, it wouldn't be good for us to wake up all tired because of this conversation tonight." Ren would state, with Itsuki nodding in agreement and saying "Yeah, gotta be ready for tomorrow."
The Doctor would smile a bit, these guys definitely need their sleep. But the good thing for the Doctor was that sleep wasn't a hindrance for him, but he just wanted to figure out what to do until tomorrow. "You guys go and get some sleep, I'll catch up." The other two heroes would nod and leave the room, heading to their chambers to also sleep for the night like Motoyasu.
"And then there was one… again. Alright so, what should I do? Well, I can't just walk out of the castle now can I? Hmmm, maybe I should check out the library here…" The Doctor would think in his head. He always did love gaining knowledge, and most castles had libraries. Plus, to learn of this world's history and what he has to look out for in it, he had to admit that it was nice to find new knowledge again. And so, the Doctor would leave the quarters of the heroes, looking around the castle until he could find the library. He wasn't gonna go into this world blind, he was going to be prepared. "Alright new world, you better be ready for me. But I'm sure it'll be fine, what's the worst that could happen?"
End chapter.