It's been a night since Oliver's first drome match in Chaotic. It's the morning after. Before his morning lecturer, Oliver uses his scanner to port straight to Chaotic. Now with the memories of the place, he doesn't have a second thought on when his scanner locks out of his account. He packs it in his bag and heads to his college.
The version of him sent to Chaotic appears on the portal circles right by the entrance. He gives out a stretch and a yawn as he's in the process of waking up.
Nathan waits for him holding a cup of pop for him. "Ah good, you're here." He hands them the drink to help them wake up. "So, you ready for the second part of the tour?"
Oliver takes a few sips first, letting the sugar have time to kick in. "That depends, what's left to see?"
Nathan just looks at him with a smile and says, "Perim."
It takes Oliver a second to react, his brain half asleep until it clicks. "Wait, as in actual Perim?"
"Yeah, the home of the creatures. Where else do you think everyone gets these never-before-seen scans? I'm going to take you on a scan quest, get you something brand new, and teach you how it works."
At this point, Oliver just goes along with it. It's hard not to believe something when the impossible is right in front of you. "You know where the bin is?" He asks, holding an empty cup.
They toss their rubbish in one of the nearby bins in the cafeteria before organizing their first quest. Standing on the portal pad, they scroll through the locations in their collection.
"You've got a copy of Kiru City, right?" Nathan asks, looking over Oliver's shoulder.
"Hang on," he swipes through a few cards in his collection, "Yeah, just the one copy."
"Perfect. Just like it in like I showed you, and we should be good."
After locking the location to the scanner, they stand on individual portal spots. With just one tap on the scanner, they become engulfed in code again, teleporting them elsewhere.
…
The pair reappear in Kiru City, the capital of the Overworld. Home to the tribe's honorable leader Maxxor, this city is the prime location for the tribe. This metropolis is surrounded by a tall, thick wall keeping it safe from various attacks, with a near 100% success rate at defending the city from attacks. The palace can be seen from miles away, with the Museum of Perim being a great spot for culture, and the Kiru City Armory housing some of the tribe's best gear, although highly restricted to outsiders most of the time.
Oliver and Nathan teleport into the marketplace of the city. It's nighttime, with the marketplace being closed for business, leaving little to see. Regardless, Oliver is still having a great time already, getting to see another world, and a location he's only seen printed on a card.
Looking around, they don't see anyone else about, creatures or players alike. Nathan pulls out a torch, having planned for the trip, and passes another to Oliver before instructing him to follow.
"So here's how it works. If you have a scan of a location, you can lock it in, and teleport there. You can do that from anywhere, even in Perim itself. Just remember, some locations vary on appearance. You could scan this place during a fire, and use said version in a match, but if you were to teleport here using that scan, the fire would have long been put out. Make sense?" Nathan tries to explain the rules on how the location scans work.
"Yeah, that makes sense. Although, not sure how a burning city would be safe for a battle."
"It's not about it being safe but more unpredictable. The surprise to your opponent may lead to an advantage since you know what's coming, and could use it to gain a win."
Oliver looks around as Nathan acts as his unofficial tour guide again. "Is it worth scanning this place now?"
"You can if you want. But remember this. You can only scan one thing at a time. One creature, one battle gear, one mugic, one location. You have to go back to Chaotic to add them to your collection manually before you can scan some more. So I'd hold up on that just yet. Seeing if we can find something worth scanning."
Oliver sees the logic in the thinking, and goes along with it, but remembers to ask, "So what's worth scanning then? Here, I mean."
"Not sure. I haven't been here in a while, so let's go try the Armory and see what battle gear we can find."
They take a walk towards the Kiru City Armory. Under the cover of night, they get passed the guards, quietly entering the alleyway outside the building. They lift themselves up by the bars in the window to peer inside. Nathan shoves his arm through and uses the torch to examine the battle gear in the armory.
"Not a bad stache," he says as he makes a mental note of what he sees. "Liquilizers, Cyclances, some Pyroblasters, even a Torwegg. See anything catch your eye?"
Oliver uses his torch to get a look for himself, "A Torwegg is a jetpack, right? That doesn't sound too bad."
"Yeah. The best part is, even if your creature can't do Wind attacks, you can still use it to fly."
"Wicked, I'll go for that then."
"Good choice, just make sure to," Nathan is cut off as he hears voices coming over. "Mate, hit the deck." The pair leap down and take cover behind one of the nearby crates.
Two city guards walk passed wearing blue and white armor with the Overworld symbol on their chests. They carry around battle gear for protection. The pair hear them talking as they walk on by.
"Staluk took him to Mommark's castle this morning with Owis."
"What good will that do him? Mugic couldn't cure him, so what can Mommark do?"
"From what I heard, they're hoping he can cure him, or at least allow Acwulf to control what's become of him."
"That's a big maybe."
The guards leave the alleyway. The pair wait another minute before coming out from behind the crate.
"Earth or Perim, one thing remains consistent."
"People like to gossip while on the job."
"Yep."
With the coast clear once more, they hurry up and try to scan something to make the trip worth it. Oliver uses his to scan a copy of the Torwegg for his collection, while Nathan notices something closer to the window. He scans it instead, curious as to what it is. When it's done scanning, it turns out to be a new piece of battle gear. He keeps that detail to himself and pockets his scanner.
They leave the alleyway before the guards can return, and try just walking down the street.
"So do the creatures mind having us around, or what? What's the deal with that?"
"It's complicated," Nathan is a matter of fact with his answer. "It varies from creature to creature, tribe to tribe. Danians are very territory, visit Mount Pillar at your own risk. Mipedian can be cool, depending on who you meet. The different worlders are a mixed bag. Some are fine with us, just as long as we stay in our lane, which is fair enough, right?"
"So is that why we're in the Overworld? Less likely to be an issue with us walking about?"
As the two have their conversation, they hear the echoes of heavy footsteps on stone tiles from behind. "STOP! THIEF!"
They turn around to see two city guards chasing after a cloaked figure. Using their battle gear, they fire upon the thief, although they're quick to dodge the attacks by leaping out of the way.
The guards see Oliver and Nathan standing in the middle of the street and call out to the pair. "YOU TWO! STOP HIM!"
The pair look at each other. Within just a few seconds they have the most frantic non-verbal conversation ever, composed of various pulled faces, hand gestures, and confused looks on if they should get involved. The choice is made for them when the thief accidentally tackles them.
They grab the thief and try to hold them down, waiting for the guards to arrive. As the thief flails about, Oliver notices a bag around their neck and tries to reach for it, thinking it is what they stole. The thief however is surprisingly strong, able to withstand both players while they get back on their feet.
Oliver is thrown aside, ripping the bag open as he holds onto it while being tossed around. As the bag rips, a generic mugic falls out and lands beside him on the ground.
Nathan grabs the cloak, and pulls on it, revealing the thief to be Getterek, an Underworlder. Getterek is a taskmaster with the appearance of a humanoid gecko. A lizard with orange skin with markings over his body, and multiple arms.
Seeing the creature to be Getterek, Nathan decides now would be the perfect time to get a scan. He grabs hold of them, using his build to weigh them down, again waiting for the guard's backup. While he waits, he uses his scanner to scan him for his collection. Getterek breaks out of Nathan's grip right as the scan is complete.
With the mission ruined, Getterek counts their losses and pulls out a smoke bomb. Throwing it to the ground, it explodes, shoving the street in a cloud of grey smoke. Both guards and players are unable to see the Underworlder as they make their escape empty-handed.
When the smoke settles, the guards look around. They search for any sign of where Getterek could have gone to. Nathan walks over to Oliver to help his friend get back up. Oliver in turn sees the mugic and picks it up.
"Damn it! He got away," one of the guards is angered over losing their target.
"Let's just hope he wasn't able to take too much from the vault besides that one mugic."
Hearing the guards talk, Oliver whistles out to them, "Oi, lads! Is this what you're looking for?" He holds up the mugic for them to see.
"That's it! They must have dropped it. Nice job, human."
The guard walks over to collect it, but before handing it over, Oliver asks to get a scan just for help. The guard agrees, holding on to it while the players scan it. Once complete, they take the stolen goods and leave the pair alone to report back to their superiors.
Looking at the scan, they find out that mugic was Diminuendo.
"What? All that for Diminuendo?" Oliver is unhappy with the new mugic. "Minus 5 to energy and all disciplines?"
Nathan just shakes his head, "That's just for the card game. It does more in a drome match." Nathan shows his scanner, "Check it out, I got a scan of that guy before he disappeared. He's pretty decent, not gonna lie. I have another like this, so I'll see if my strategy has room."
"Right, so what happens now?"
"Well, I have a drome match in an hour, so let's head back and help me prepare for my next win."
Amused, Oliver agrees, wanting to see how a battle looks from the other side of the screen for a change. They ported back to Chaotic with no issue to add to their respective collections. Unaware to Getterek having watched them from a building rooftop before they returned.