Disclaimer: I own nothing!
"AAAAHH!" Ruby screamed as the fireball was approaching her fast.
"Get down!" A voice called out as some one tackled Ruby to ground and pushed her out of the way of the fireball and behind a rock.
After recomposing herself for a moment, Ruby looked up to see a young boy, possibly about a year older than her, with short black hair, pale skin and heterochromatic eyes. His left eye being green and his right eye being brown. He was wearing a black coat with a green trim, black cargo pants, and black shoes.
Ruby was about to say something but the boy stopped her and put a finger up to his mouth, signaling her to be quiet. As he does this, another Flame Orb flies by overhead, causing them both to duck they're heads again.
The boy sees an large amount of stalagmites that make a great place to take cover and quietly gestured to Ruby to go there before quietly crawling his way there, hiding behind the rocks along the way.
Not seeing many other choices, Ruby follows his lead, avoiding other incoming fire.
Once they both get there, the boy leans back on the rocks and lets out a breath.
"That was close." He breathed out.
"What's going on?" Ruby nervously asks.
"Listen, I came her to try and get a scan of Drakness from a rumor I heard but things went differently and the last thing I need is a scan hog to make things even tougher." He said as he turned to her.
Ruby was just confused. "S-Scan hog? what's that, and is this another drome?" She asked as another explosion was heard.
"Drome?" The boy questioned before his eyes widened in realization. "You're a newbie aren't you?"
"Yeah." Ruby answered.
"So how'd end up here?" The boy asked.
"I was freaking out about how to get home when this boy named Isaac-"
"Isaac?!" The boy cut her off suddenly. "Isaac as in, orange eyes, short dark hair, wears a fancy looking sort of suit?" He asked.
"Yeah?" Ruby said, unsure why he was acting like this.
"That slime ball?!" He exclaimed.
"What?" Ruby asked confused.
"Let me guess, you have a copy of the Lava Pond in your scanner?" The boy said as more of a fact than a question.
"Yeah." Ruby said surprised. "How'd you know?"
"You're "friend", Isaac, is really just a manipulative slime ball. If he tricked you then you must be a good player. He set your scanner to take you to the Lava Pond instead of back home, probably thinking you wouldn't be able to figure out how to get back and then there would be one less player that could beat him or mess with whatever plan he makes." The boy explained to her.
Ruby blinked, taking a moment to process this. Then, she had an expression of shock, before it turned into one of anger. "How could he?!" She cried out.
"Ok newbie-" The boy started before getting cut off.
"I have a name you know!" She said exasperated. "It's Ruby!"
The boy rolled his eyes. "Fine, Ruby. Happy now?"
"Yes. Um, sorry for snapping at you, uh..." Ruby tried to apologize but realized she never got his name.
"Jekyll." The boy said before continuing what he was saying earlier. "Ok Ruby, I'm going to try and quickly explain how it works. You know all those cards you use, the creatures, battlegear, locations and Mugic?" He asked.
"Obviously." Ruby said, she did use them to play the game after all.
"Well they're all real." He said casually.
"What?" She asked, eyes wide.
"Yep, we're in their world. You see every single card in the game is real. Every creature, battlegear, location and Mugic are real, and they're all here, in Perim." Jekyll explained before pausing, letting the information sink into her head.
Jekyll then continued. "See, our scanners can do more than just bring us to chaotic and store our cards. They can also take us to Perim, home of all creatures in Chaotic. Here we can, true to their name, use the scanner to scan things, creatures, Mugic, battlegear and locations and add them to our collection. Including things you could never get as a card back home." He explained as he shuffled through the scans in his scanner.
"Wow." Was all Ruby could as she was just stunned in awe.
"But be careful. This isn't the dromes back in Chaotic, meaning if you get wasted here, you STAY wasted. No coming back and no reappearing in a drome" Jekyll warned and Ruby gulped. suddenly another Flame Orb hit close to where they were and the ground rumbled.
"What was that?!" She asked in a panic.
"Remember what I said when I thought you were a scan hog? Well I was tracking Drakness to get scan of him and heard he might show up in the Lava Pond. But instead of Drakness, I got a living pile of lava having a literal firefight with a jump happy OverWorlder." Jekyll said as he peeked over the the rocks they were hiding behind.
Confused, Ruby took a look as well and saw a humanoid form made of lava and stone and a green elf-like creature with red spiky hair. Both of which she recognized.
"Kreall and Prantix?!" She said shocked.
"Don't know what Prantix is doing in the UnderWorld but since I can't get Drakness, might as well get a scan of Kreall. Fortunately, Prantix has just been jumping around and Kreall has been blowing away all of his attacks so neither are beat up yet." Jekyll said before turning to Ruby.
"Come on, I'll show you how to take a scan and kill 2 birds with one stone." Jekyll said as he took out his scanner.
"Ok, you aim your scanner at what you want to scan and hold this button down until it's finished." Jekyll said as he performed the action and after a moment the scan finished and he looked at it to see his new scan of Kreall.
Ruby looked at the scan before trying the same and managed to get a scan of Kreall as well.
"Wait, how do I get back though?" Ruby asked.
Jekyll gestured to buttons she need to to press. "Just hit this button and you should be ported back to Chaotic. I'll explain more there." He said as he hit the button and disappeared. Ruby did the same.
Back in Chaotic both players appeared at the port court.
"Wow, this is amazing!" Ruby said as she held up her scanner.
Then she realized something. "Wait, I've been gone for so long my family must worried sick!" She worried.
"Actually you're still at home, probably doing whatever it is you usually do around this time." Jekyll said as he walked up to her.
"Huh?" Ruby tilted her head confused.
Jekyll sighed. "Ok this is the part that's confusing for everyone so I'm gonna explain it best I can." He said before continuing.
"Ok think of your chaotic self like an avatar from a video game, ok?" Ruby nodded.
"Now, when you enter chaotic, it's actually just your mind that gets sent there, and it's put into your Chaotic avatar that's made every time you port here. Meanwhile, your actual physical body is left back at home and gets put on a sort of autopilot where you go on as if nothing happened. That way, while you have fun here in Chaotic, there's still a you back home so no one worries about you going missing or anything. Think you got it?" Jekyll asked after explaining.
"So my brain gets put into a virtual avatar while my body stays home and takes care of itself?" Ruby tried to summarize.
"Close enough." Jekyll shrugged.
"That's so cool." Ruby said with stars in her eyes, this was getting better and better.
"But how do I get back home?" Ruby asked.
"Simple, you come here to the port court and hit this button." Jekyll said as he pointed to a button on her scanner. "When you do that, your scanner back home should have the same button blink red, and when your other self presses it, you should go back home. But if it doesn't work, then either your other self doesn't have access to your scanner, or she's just not responding to it." He explained.
Ruby simply made and 'O' face.
"Oh and one last thing, when you enter Chaotic, your real world scanner shuts down and your online deck becomes inaccessible while your here. Most players tend to freak out at first when this happens." He warned her.
"Ok, got it. Thanks so much for the help!" She thanked.
"Don't mention it. You're new and needed help, especially since that slime ball tricked you." He said which made Ruby frown at remembering the boy who tricked her.
"But before you leave make sure you lock in that new scan of yours to your scanner so it's added to your collection. I'm gonna do the same." He said as he walked off.
Real World
Ruby was reading a comic book when she noticed a button on her scanner flashing. Curious, she pressed it and suddenly all of her memories from her time in Chaotic and Perim came flooding back to her.
She dropped her scanner onto her bed out of sheer shock.
"Oh. My. Cookies." She said in shock before her face turned into an excited expression. "This is gonna be amazing!"