Arc One: Chaotic Field Trip

Part one

In a jungle filled with large exotic plants and dangerous life with a sandy ground under neath it all, a few dozen new arrivals came to learn and explore. They appeared out thin air in a swirl of bright numbers, letters and symbols swirling around until they came together to form bodies. They didn't all gather together in one place. They were split up into different small groups and a few decided to travel there alone.

They have a few things in common like each of them having a device called a scanner, wearing helmets and gauntlets, carrying camouflage backpacks, and all of them having clothing that covered almost all of their skin. Their outfits were unique to them and no one was wearing the same cloths. The helmets and gauntlets, on the other hand, only had seven variations. These variations indicated their clan.

One group made up of four members found themselves in a small clearing where sunlight managed to pierce through the jungle's green canopy.

"The air here smells sweet." The sole female of the four said. She, like her friends, is covered in clothing that hides all of her skin. Her helmet was made of metal like the others, but hers was colored a light green on the front plate with white on the sides and back. The eye holes were triangles with a brown protective glass and through them her green eyes could be seen. This helmet meant she is from the Chirrul clan. Her top clothing is black with her sleeves being white. Her pants are green which matched her helmet. Her gauntlets are silver and her boots are a dark grey.

"Totally agree with you, Sarah." The largest one said. Since he is from the Imthor clan his helmet is a golden color with three spikes on top and green eye holes. His eyes couldn't be seen through the glass unlike Sarah's. His gauntlets were also a golden color, but his boots are the same as Sarah's but bigger. His shirt was brown and his pants are a darker shade of brown than his shirt. "Most be all these large flowers." he says then steps closer to an orange one that was twice as wide and tall as him.

"Careful Peyton!" The thin boy warned him, putting his hand on Peyton's shoulder to stop him from getting any closer. This boy's helmet is an Amzen helmet and it is a mixture of white, blue and yellow. Blue plating was on the front with yellow strikes running down from his eye holes making him look like he was crying a yellow stream of tears. The back of his helmet and part of the chin make up the white parts. He's wearing mostly black clothing, only his jacket was red on the inside. His boots were also black with metal plating on top and his gauntlets are white. "That flower is carnivorous. Get too close and it will swallow you." he said.

"Thanks for the heads up, Kaz." Peyton said stepping back from the flower. "And I thought Tom was the plant specialist." he said, looking at the last person of the group.

Said person, Tom, had a silver helmet with a long face plate and small wings on the sides. He didn't have eye holes like his friends, instead he had what looked like a black visor in his face plate, which emanated two blue spots that glowed. His pants were blue and his top was a light grey with a white circle on his chest. His boots are grey and his gauntlets are the same silver color as his helmet. He is from the Crellen clan.

"I've only just started taking the Herbalism class a week ago, Peyton. And it only goes over planets for medicine." Tom said.

"Come on guys. We have to start exploring or else we'll come back to school empty handed." Sarah reminded them.

"And we need to stop talking out loud." Kaz says, but this time his voice couldn't be heard to anyone but his friends. That time Kaz used his helmet's builtin communication system that muted his voice and sent it to the others's helmets so only they could hear his voice.

"Right, don't want any creatures hearing us and come investigating." Tom said through the communication's link. He held up his blue scanner and pulled up a sonar feature of it to see if there were any creatures nearby. "Doesn't look like there's anyone around like our teacher said, but one of us should keep their scanners set on their radar. Since I'm the one looking for medicine plants could someone else be on radar duty?" Tom asked.

"I'll do it." Peyton volunteered, then took out his yellow scanner. "It counts towards my work in my scouting class."

"Shouldn't you be scouting around for us instead?" Kaz asked. "Like going ahead of us to see what is and isn't there?"

"Nah, we got to stay in our group or we could loss each other." Peyton answered. "My scouting class also started last week and I haven't been taught much yet, so I'll probably not find my way back to you guys knowing my luck."

"Let's go east." Tom says, looking at his scanner. "My notes say the further we go east in this location the more likely there will be planets with healing properties."

"Fine by me. Anywhere we go, I can find bugs here for my entomology class." Sarah says.

"Same with my gemology." Kaz says.

With a plan formed they walked to the east with their scanners out and their eyes wide open.

This wasn't their first time outside their safe home, Chaotic. But it was their first time out in the wilds of Perim without an adult close by to watch over them. Now that they were fifteen years old and have passed all their survival tests their Tribe has deemed them wise enough to make short trips into Perim so they could learn about the world below them. Of course they couldn't travel anywhere they wanted. They had to stay within a certain area that was checked out beforehand to make sure there wasn't anything too dangerous for them.

But even with all the safety measures their Tribe did beforehand, it was still nerve-racking for them to be out in a foreign place with only themselves to make the decisions.

After travailing for an hour, Tom finds patches of a planet called Ox grass by the locals and it can be used to help sooth stomachaches.

While Tom was busy gathering them. Sarah was collecting bugs and Kaz (he had collected different types of rocks on their hour walk and had enough for his project) was helping her. Peyton was keeping guard and looking at his scanner for any signs of creatures nearby. Thankfully the radar scanner hasn't picked up anything.

"Ahh, gross!" Kaz shouted, dropping his pair of tweezers that he was using to pick up bugs. Sarah with her hand holding her nose looks over to see what was making the awful smell.

"What's wrong?" Peyton asks. He had climbed up on a large fallen tree trunk so he would have a better lookout position.

"He picked up a stink bug. That's the problem." Sarah answered, picking up the tweezers.

"Um guys." Tom says, getting his friends attention. "I've found someone's scanner."

Kaz, Sarah and Peyton quickly rush over to Tom who was holding up a blue scanner.

A scanner without its owner is never a good thing and all four of them understands why.

Their species are very weak when compared to every other living thing in the world. But they did have several advantages that has kept them alive for thousands of years and has even allowed them to become one of the top species on the food chain. One of these advantages is their ability to transport to any location they can think of. This ability had to be learned and only through practice could they go anywhere in the world.

A scanner is like training wheels. All Chaotic adults can transport on their own, but a Chaotic under twelve years cannot and teenagers between thirteen to sixteen years need help to transport to long distance locations. And that's where their scanners help out.

So since one of their fellow students doesn't have their scanner it means that that person cannot transport back to Chaotic.

Notes: I've been wanting to write a story like this for years and I've finally came around to doing it. Though I will say after the fifth chapter it could be months for any updates. School has been taking most of my time for awhile now so a lot of my stories haven't been updated in months. Some have even gone years without getting any updates. I've already written rough drafts of the the first arc. So next update will most likely be sometime this month.

So what do you think of the first chapter? I'm trying to work on the world building in this arc and I hope people won't be confused by it.

Please write a review!