Chapter 1

The city was stirring with people, with slim white clouds stretching across the sky, giving way only to the towering skyscrapers that reached towards the heavens. Under the hot sun, thousands of people pushed their way through the throngs of foot traffic that filled the streets. Amidst the crowd, a woman reached for her purse, and her phone floated easily into her hand as she took a call.

A delivery biker whizzed by, navigating his hovering motorcycle past towering white buildings and archways, cycling up a hill, and parting a group of pigeons on the ground as he went. The sounds of construction, car horns, and music merged together into a symphony that echoed and reverberated through the streets and into a deeper layer of The Hub.

 Through the traffic, weaving around citizens, and past storefronts, a group of four friends - Ivy, Haley, Jace, and Tad - found themselves in a deserted section of The Hub. Unlike the downtown region, this place was unlit, filthy, and damp. The air had a sort of musty aroma to it, and everything felt off. Dense clouds hid the region from the light, and the only light that could be found came from the billboards, which seemed to glow with a turquoise ambiance. Everyone and everything was startled to silence, and not a sound could be heard except for the thrashing of their own hearts. 

“W-Why.. Where…” Haley blundered, her words pulsating with a ghostly echo that reminded Ivy heavily of the sound the gas station bell had made when it rang. Behind them, where the gas station once was, stood a stone sculpture of two children - a commemoration. There was no retort to Haley's question. There were no more words to speak. A tear ran down Haley's cheek. Why, god? Where? She thought, Why… 

“I saw this in a movie once… This group of teens were transported to a post-apocalyptic world, and... Hey, are you even listening?” Jace seemed completely unphased by the situation, munching on a bag of stale Doritos. Ivy gaped at him incredulously. Was he serious?  

 "M-maybe this is all a dream!" Tad said hastily. "Pretty soon here, I'll wake up and I'll be in my nice, warm bed. No weird parallel realms, no road trip, no nothing." 

“Okay, let's just take this in slowly. What do we know?” Ivy. 

“We’re all gonna die!!!” Tad cried, crumpled up on the pavement. “The end is near! SOMEBODY PINCH ME!” Ivy rolled her eyes “Not helpful…” 

 Jace drew out his phone. “Great idea! Call for help!” Said Haley thankfully, glad that Jace had finally done something smart. He shoved another handful of stale Doritos into his mouth, munching as he spoke. “What? Nah, I was just gonna play Subway Surfers.” Haley stared at him, bewildered. As he powered it on, a large holographic projection shot out of the screen, causing him to drop it in shock. Ivy sauntered over to the phone, picked it up, and caught a span of what looked like fantasy baseball cards, each with a symbol on them. Tad, unprompted, poked a card with a storm cloud on it from over Ivy's shoulder, causing the ground to rumble and the clouds to shift in the sky.

 Jace fumed at him from a safe distance. "YOU IDIOT! YOU MADE IT MAD! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PLAY SUBWAY SURFERS NOW?!"  

Suddenly, a robotic voice sounded from above. "Class selected."

 "...oh." Muttered jace 

 Haley sighed. “So… I understand that we’re all thoroughly traumatized, but sitting around isn’t going to do anything. Besides, What do we, of all people, have to lose?” She rubbed her eyes, smeared her mascara, and selected a card. The voice sounded again: “Error 203; Not qualified to select a card - Recipient already possesses skill(s).”

 “...Well, so much for not just sitting around,” Said Haley dejectedly. Jace toddled towards Ivy, skeptically leaned over her shoulder, and tapped a card as quickly as possible. The one he ended up choosing had a rocket on it, and was labeled ‘Future class’. 

“Class selected!” 

“Eugh,” He shuttered, “That robot voice gives me the heebeegeebees…” Ivy, on the other hand, wasn’t quite sold on the whole ‘Oh, Let's poke a random card on a random holographic screen in a random dimension’ Thing. She selected one anyway. “Error 203;-- Not qualified to select a card.” the voice said, “Recipient already possesses Skill(s)”  

Haley turned to her. “You and me both, girl.” 

“This stinks.” Grumbled Ivy. Suddenly, Jace’s phone lit up with a different screen. It read: ‘Begin tutorial quest?’ Followed by ‘start’ directly below it. Without consideration, Jace promptly poked ‘start’, and before anyone could protest, the world was spinning again. Everything went black, arousing a nauseating feeling in their stomach. Their bodies felt as if they were being stretched in every direction, until… It stopped. 

Ivy awoke to find herself standing alone in a mystical forest, surrounded by birds fleeing from the trees towards the sun. A squirrel scampered up a nearby tree, reuniting with its family. Dandelions blew in the wind, and nothing could be heard except for the rustling of the trees and the chirping of the birds... and Jace's screams. 

Jace soared past her, howling. She would have mistaken him for a bird at the height he was at;-- if it wasn’t for the dreadful sound he was making. “What the…” She muttered. 

Ivy followed the sound of Jace’s screams, giving her time to let the situation at hand sink in. Where was she? How did Jace manage to fly past her like a superhero? Or; Bigger question, Why did she even care if the only people she ever knew and loved were with her? She stumbled into what looked like an old castle ruin, With old stone bricks towering over 80 feet above her, Consumed in rampant green vines. Jace and Tad stood at the base of the structure, bickering about… Nail polish? Huh, She thought, Not my first choice of dispute, but whatever floats your boat.

Suddenly, And without warning, Someone leaped from behind her and wrapped their arms around her neck, resting their elbows on her shoulders. She yelped & whipped her head back; managing to headbutt the mystery person in the nose. Mystery person fell to the ground. And she does it again, Ladies and gentlemen! Score! ...Is what she thought until she turned around to look at the mystery person.

 It was Haley.

 “Whoops.” 

Jace let out an ear-piercing laugh from behind her as Haley wailed in pain.

“Owww… Why’d you have to headbut me?”

Jace laughed even harder and weakly pointed at Ivy and Haley as Haley stood up, Pinching her nose.

Jace stopped laughing enough to say, “You…,” He grinned “Nice one, Ivy.” 

Haley shoots him a glare before turning to look back at Ivy. “No, not a nice one, Ivy. Never do that again.”

  She scowled. “Don’t randomly wrap your arms around my neck, then.”

"Well, actually," Tad starts, "this is likely to happen again, as--"

"Shut up Tad," Jace interjects, pointing an accusing finger at him. "This is why you like the smell of nail polish."

Tad gasps, genuinely offended. "I do NOT--"

And the two of them go on to squabble about nail polish again.

Ivy shifted her attention to Haley. "So, are we gonna question any of this?" She says, motioning to their surroundings. Haley looks around for a while, like she's considering it, and says, "Hmmm... Nope. None of this makes sense. I gave up like ten minutes ago when Jace flew through the sky and crashed into the castle wall." She gestures back at the castle with her thumb, Jace and Tad still arguing.

"He what?" Ivy bites her lip, trying not to laugh. Just then, Jace strutted up to the two of them and stood in front of them like a toddler excited to show his parents something. "Look what I can do," he said smugly. He then proceeded to do a prolonged squat pose with a pained look on his face. After around 30 seconds, he began breaking out into a sweat, and Haley had to interject. "..You look constipated." 

"Just... Wait..." He grunts.

Haley responded with an eyebrow raise. "What are we waiting for, exactly?"

"If I tell you, it won't be as cool!" he said with a pout.

"Yeah, well, this--" --She points at him-- "isn't very cool."

"Ugh, FINE, I give UP!" He stood up and stormed away, when suddenly, blue jet fire emitted from his palms and he went shooting up into the sky. Huh. Thought Ivy, cool.

They all stood in silence for a good minute. 

“Are we planning on helping him, or are we just going to stand here? Because I could really use to get some homework done and Jace’s screams make for some great background noise…” Said Tad. Jace let out a shriek from above. He landed on the castle, somehow. 

Haley glowered at him. “One,” she pointed at him “You don’t have homework anymore, considering we're in a parallel realm, And two,” She pointed at him with two fingers “How do you propose we get up there?” Haley motioned upward towards the castle, where Jace could be heard very faintly. “THAT WAS ALL A PART OF THE PLA-” Jace hollered. Then he proceeded to let out another ear-piercing shriek. Ivy covered her ears. “Alright, that's it, we’re not helping him.” 

Haley raised an eyebrow and looked back up at the castle. “As if we could.”

Ivy just shrugged. “True.” 

Tad scoffed. “Are you daft?” Haley side-eyed him. “Did you just use the word daft in a sentence?” Ivy sighs. “Can we just, like.. Get to the point, please? I think Jace might be in mortal terror And as delightful as that sounds, I'm getting impatient.”
Tad went on to explain how while transitioning from The Hub to this.. Place, He was placed in an empty black void, and was given instructions about a Status Window and special abilities from the same strange voice they had heard when they selected the cards. He instructed them that by verbally saying ‘Status Window’, a holographic screen would appear in front of them, displaying their name and two combat abilities one special ability, and one regular ability. Haley thought he was going crazy, but humored him nonetheless. 

Haley blinked at him. “Are you” She air quoted “daft?” Tad cocked his head. “What?”

 Ivy shook her head. “We didn’t get cards, dumbo.” Tad put his hands on his hips. “Don’t call me dumbo. Also, I'd say it's still worth a shot.” 

“Alright…” Haley said, “But it’s not gonna work.” She shook her head and went on to say "Status Window" as Tad had instructed. Before she could throw a pointed look at Tad, she realized it had actually worked. The window lingered, Floating gently in front of her face. 

This time, Instead of the cards it once had displayed, it now showed what looked like her very own video game profile. It exhibited her level--- whatever that meant--- her name, her XP, and her age. Creepy, thought Haley. Below the profile, there was a range of abilities. Each of them with a name and a description. One of them

Ivy imitated Haley and proceeded to summon a Status Window of her own. It displayed the same;-- 'Age: 18'. 'Level: Unevaluated'. 'Name: Ivy Solace.' Well, that's not right, Thought Ivy. Legally, her last name was Jenkins. “Uh…,” Ivy started, perplexed, gesturing to the screen. “Why’s it say my last name is Solace?”  Haley raised her eyebrows in shock. “Mine says Solace too! I thought maybe that was just me, …but I guess not…”  She turned over to Tad “What now?” 

“Now, you pick an ability. You can only use your special ability once per quest, so use it wisely.” Tad lectured. Haley put her hands on her hips. “I have like…” she scrolls through her abilities, counting them “..one, two, three.. Fifteen abilities. Sixteen if you count the special one.”

Tad gaped at her. “Oh, That is so not fair.” Haley grinned. “Life isn’t fair.”

Ivy blinked. “.. Should I just assume we have to yell out an ability like a lunatic?” Tad nodded reluctantly as Ivy sighed. “I have way too much dignity to do this…” She scrolled through her abilities, and stopped; her finger hovering just above an ability titled ‘Solar Flare’. The description of the ability seemed pretty self explanatory. She yells out the name, she gets teleported to wherever she wants, and then;-- after they rescue Jace, bada bing-bada boom done. Haley and Tad had already found their way up the ruin by the time she’d decided to actually use the ability. She had wanted to be absolutely certain that she wouldn’t end up in the ground afterwards. “Solar… Flare….?” She squeaked. Suddenly, an expanse of  blue & purple flame obstructed her vision, and the next thing she knew, she was on top of the ruin;-- confused and hesitant. 

Haley held a round goblin creature, about the size of a medium sized dog, pinching its skin. The whole of its body was an eyeball, Eyelids included. Ivy struggled to figure out how such stubby legs can hold up something that heavy. Jace was cowering in front of Haley, Scared of the creature. Haley shoved it closer to his face, and he shrieked like a little girl before he ran off;-- Haley chased closely behind. They ran in circles for what seemed like hours before Jace finally stopped to catch his breath. 

“GET THAT” He wheezed “THING AWAY FROM ME.”

“Why?” Said Haley, shaking the creature side to side like a stuffed animal. “What harm could this little guy ever--”

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA,” says Jace, his eyes wide and genuinely scared. “DON’T.  TRUST. IT!” Haley wasn’t scared. She bursted out laughing, doubling over and pointing at him. The laughing ceased at once the second the creature began shooting a large lazerbeam out of its eye, destroying everything in its path, & spinning in circles.

“GAH!” Haley shrieked, as she jumped over the lazer as it came full circle back to her. “WHAT THE HECK?” “I TOLD YOU!” Jace snaps.

Suddenly, the creature retracted the lazer. It had waddled up to Haley, and promptly plastered itself to her leg like a barnacle.

“WELL-- EWW!!” She hobbled on one foot “IT'S ON ME!! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!” Haley shook her leg violently, and eventually, with much effort,  the creature peeled off of her leg. Soon after the creature hit the ground, Tad sent a huge bolt of lightning his special ability down on to the creature. And, with a yelp from Jace, A “Woah…” from Tad, and a whole lot of confused silence, The creature was turned to dust. 

Before they could process what just happened, yet another screen manifested in front of them, floating in all its holographic glory. 

Quest completed. Claim reward?

A bright red button hovered straight below the screen. Haley spoke out. “Let's wait and think this through before we press--” Jace immediately pressed the button, choosing the adventure over logic, as usual.

An object of shimmering gold fell from the sky and landed right into the palm of Jace’s hand. A house key. “Sick!” He exclaimed, examining the key under the sun. A long moment of silence fell between them. “So what no--” Suddenly, Ivy felt that the floor had dropped beneath them again, as they went spiraling downwards in a motion that hadn’t become less sickening since the last time this had happened. Their feet land in yet another unfamiliar place. This is getting really annoying, Thought Ivy.