James sat in the corner of the restroom, trying to catch his breath and calm down. The shaking of his hands had subsided somewhat, and he felt a bit lightheaded but managed to get his breathing under control. The events from the previous hour had been more than he could handle, and his mind was caught in a loop.

Monsters. Those had been real, full-size Monsters. James' body was still sore from the impact with the casual arm throw of the Armored Gorilla. He remembered the musk of the creature as it had bared down on him. He had felt the heat of its body. How was that even possible? Why did they target him? What did he have that they wanted? Was one going to come bursting through the door? Should he keep running?

He looked down at the small patch of red on his hand as he pulled it away from his head. He had a minor injury from where he had collided with the wall. He would need to do something about that. A head injury was terrible, but it wasn't 'real-life monster' terrible. Everything he saw wasn't just the cause of a head injury, was it? He should go to a hospital. These kinds of things could be complicated.

James got to his knees and began to stand up, the recycled air conditioning causing him to shiver. He was covered in sweat. But what if they were waiting for him there? He would be defenseless. Would they attack a hospital? What was he supposed to do? There hadn't been any 'in case of monster attack' drills in school. The world was primarily peaceful. He knew there were always small fights here and there, but nothing that affected him. Was this an invasion? No, the first three had looked like thugs, not soldiers. Maybe it was an undercover operation?

But they had been using real Monsters. How was that possible? His thoughts had begun looping again, but his train of thought was cut off when the door banged several times.

James scrambled to his feet and pressed himself back against the wall.

"Hey! Is everything okay in there?" a voice yelled through the door. "I have other customers. You better not be shooting up in there."

"No!" James yelled quickly. "I'm fine. Just..." He paused as he caught his breath. "Just dealing with some shit."

"I don't care what kind of shit you have to deal with. Get out of the restroom," the man said before the door banged again. "You've been in there a half hour!"

James took a deep breath and grabbed the tote bag from the floor. It wasn't his. He had grabbed the wrong one by accident in his rush to escape. He wasn't even sure why he had bothered to try and grab his bag. He had been holding the cards he had bought when all that had happened. He had held them in a death grip for a while, and he had tossed the nearly crushed remains into the bag with whatever else was in there.

He hadn't dared go through the bag. He half wanted to throw it in the garbage and run, but he was more scared of being caught by those guys and not having it. James climbed to his feet and took several deep breaths before he opened the door. He steeled himself before stepping back into the small convenience store. He noticed the attendant back behind the counter again.

"You look like shit," the attendant said. "Take a water on the house. You need to stay hydrated with that crap."

"I wasn't doing drugs," James muttered as he accepted the bottle.

"Sure," the attendant said as he rolled his eyes and pointed to the door. "Just get out of here unless you're going to buy something."

The trip back to the hotel was uneventful, but an old car backfiring almost had him jumping out of his skin. As he approached, however, he noticed a group of tattooed men in leather jackets standing near the front doors, almost as if they were waiting for someone. His mind went back to the bald thug from the alley. Were they here for him?

James turned to the left and tried to act as casually as possible as he walked away from the hotel, his heart almost beating out of his chest. He wasn't sure what to do if they followed him, but they didn't seem to have spotted him. He walked down the street a few blocks and found a cheap motel instead.

Soon enough, he had a room and sat heavily on the foot of the aging queen-sized bed. He looked around the room and sighed. It was clean, kind of, but everything felt used and worn out. The decor seemed liable to fall apart at any moment. The room smelt of dust and something he couldn't quite place. That worried him a little. Hopefully, it was just whatever cleaner they used.

He sat there for a few minutes until he worked up his courage and stood. Upending the contents of the tote bag onto the covers, he looked at the small group of items that had come tumbling out.

First were the cards he had purchased. They were a bit worse for wear now, bent and damaged from his fight and subsequent flight.

But the items that caught his eye were the three tablet-shaped devices that he hadn't purchased.

They were about as thick as his phone but taller and wider. These were the devices the thugs and even the hooded man had. Were these... what they had used to summon the monsters?

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Carefully, he picked one up and looked it over in his hands. He didn't feel anything special. No power flowed into him or anything like that. It was... well... boring.

"Boring is great. I love boring," James said as he placed the device back down. His eyes wandered toward the handful of cards he had purchased. "Boring, yes... good old boring. There's no reason to get adventurous, right?"

He reached out with shaky fingers, picked up the cards despite himself, and laid them carefully on the bed beside each other, trying his best to flatten them. "They'll probably not even work. They're too damaged."

"Kuyo. Illusionist Trainee. Heart Strike Fox. Puppeteer." James said to himself as he read over each card in turn. He turned to the first and picked it up. "A cute fluffy kitty. What could go...."

James placed the card back down and took several deep breaths. "What am I doing?"

James moved over to one of the devices and flipped it over a few times before he set it down, the flat surface facing him. "Fine. It's fine. I can do this."

Moving the Kuyo card over to it, he pressed it flat against the device with only a moment of further hesitation. The card immediately flattened against the device, and it flashed. Not even a moment later, swirling multicolored arcane energies appeared on the floor next to the bed before they condensed into a tiny monster.

James backed up quickly towards the door and away from the tiny creature. But it sat there and did nothing, entirely unbothered by his reaction. He looked at the creature warily. It was a small grey cat-like animal with a fluffy tail and puffy fur around its neck.

James slowly and carefully walked around it and glanced toward the device where the card lay stuck flat to its surface.

"It was all real," James muttered as he carefully watched the miniature monster. The Kuyo continued to simply stand there, staring off into space.

James carefully and slowly approached the cute little creature and reached a tentative hand towards its fluffy fur. "Well, since it's here."

He was sure this was a bad idea, but the fur was supposed to be heavenly to touch in the lore. He brushed against it, only for the little monster to turn and swipe at him with a claw.

James quickly retreated and ran to the far end of the room. He looked back, expecting the thing to chase him. But it stood there, an empty look on its face once more. He glanced down at the hand he was cradling. The scratch was minor, but it had hurt like hell.

He moved back towards the bed, picked up the device, and pulled the Kuyo card from it. It seemed to want to adhere to the surface but finally came off, causing the creature to vanish the same way it appeared.

"Okay," James said as he examined the card. It retained a few creases from his rough handling but was now perfectly flat.

He set the card down next to the others again as he examined the device he had used. It looked mostly the same, but a fifth along one edge, part of the surface had changed color to a lighter grey. He wasn't entirely sure what that was about, but he had a guess.

His eyes moved to the other two monster cards he had. A human-like monster might be able to answer some questions. He moved to them, and his hand hovered over the Heart Strike Fox before he thought better of it. He carefully picked up the Illusionist Trainee card instead.

"Here goes everything," he said as he placed the card on the same device. The card immediately flattened against the device. But this time, a swirl of green fog and sharp white energies converged next to him, startling him and causing him to back away as a human-like figure appeared before him.

A young woman with straight, short black hair and a grey, ragged hooded robe appeared before him. A tall pair of black fox ears extended up from her head, and a fluffy white-tipped black fox-like tail poked out through a tear in her robe. But her eyes were the most alien part of her. Violet-slit pupils burned in the darkness of a pair of large black eyes. The effect faded moments later, leaving him in the room with only a blank stare.

"Hello," he said cautiously to the monster. "I'm James."

She continued to stand there motionless, only breathing softly.

"Can you understand me?" He asked.

The woman gave no indication that she had heard him.

He looked at the device before picking it up and showing it to her. "Can you tell me what this is?"

No reaction.

"Do you know where we are? Can you talk to me?"

Nothing.

"Uhm... I order you to talk to me." He tried. "Say hello?"

She made no response to his order and just stood there.

James sighed, moved closer to the young fox woman, and waved a hand in front of her face. Her eyes didn't even follow his fingers.

Her face held a neutral expression he couldn't quite place. The lights were on, but nobody was home.

"Defend?" He tried and nearly jumped when she shifted. Her ears twitched side to side, and her eyes roamed around the room before she once again settled into a neutral position.

"Well, that's something," he said before he moved closer to her. She was a bit shorter than he was and seemed entirely unarmed, so he wasn't entirely sure what to do. She smelled like she hadn't bathed in a week, mixed with something earthy.

He reached out and touched one of her furry ears. He immediately regretted it as a knee came up and struck him in the stomach, causing him to double over onto the floor.

He picked the device up, crawled over to the bed, and sat on it as he caught his breath. The woman was motionless as he examined her.

He looked over his remaining cards and carefully picked up the spell card. He glanced back at the monster and then back at the card in his hand.

"It's worth a try," he said as he placed the card on the device. It adhered, and a swirl of multicolored light appeared around him.

James looked around as the swirling glow vanished. He blinked and looked at the bed he had been sitting in a moment before—except he wasn't sitting there anymore. He looked down at himself only to see a ragged robe and a pair of something he shouldn't have.

"WHAT THE F-"