— Okay, i hear you. — Zeke says. — Let's start with Loonie managing 101.
— Okay, the basics are: saving, tapping and revealing loonies, managing, bounding and unbounding cards, and commanding loonies using cards. First things first, access your Looniepedia. — Victor commands.
— How am i supposed to do that? — Zeke says.
— Put your palm upside wide open and it should appear in it. To make it disappear, just drop it.
Zeke makes the Looniepedia appear and dissapear several times to test it, and it, effectively, works. He keeps toying with that until he gets interrupted.
— Zeke, the Looniepedia is a work tool, not a Yo-yo.
— Sorry.
— Well, let's keep it up. Find the collection tab in your Looniepedia, then search for Took in your collection.
Zeke understands this way quicker. He has done it in a few touches.
— You got it! Do you see Took?
— Yes, but it's not highlighted in any way.
— That's because it is in your current team and there's no spare copies in your storage. Please note, you can have more than one of a given loonie but only one in every team. Duplicate loonies are only used if you want to have the same one in different teams. Otherwise you can sell them or juice them
— That's gross and cruel.
— Oh, don't worry, it's actually only the cards who are destroyed, the loonie will just despawn and wait till its spawn conditions are met elsewhere.
— Oh, then it's fine. Question, how did i obtain this Took, to begin with?
— A welcome gift for new landlords. Now, to tap Took just go to your current team.
Zeke does so and his Took disappears in front of him.
— What happened? — He screams scared.
— To tap a loonie means to retrieve it in the form of a card. Check your BPack.
Zeke sees the Took card in the transparent socket of the bag, and retrieves it.
— So... i took Took.
— Haha, clever, now, puns aside, to perform the opposite, to reveal a Loonie, just throw the card to the floor with all your strength. Try it.
Zeke tries to throw the Took card to the floor. Upon contact with it, the card emits a white and light blue sparkle, and then Took appears there.
— Great! Now retrieve it again and save it. — Victor says.
— Do it and i kill you. — Took says, taking Zeke by surprise.
— Oh, i forgot you could speak. — Zeke says, sighing.
— All loonies can speak. — Victor comments. — Tough most of the time they're just annoying and childish. Well, i respect your desire of not getting saved, but may i know why?
— Because i hate to skip time in the nothingness. Even if I'm not aware of it!
— So, personality issues, i see, but you don't mind getting tapped it seems.
— It's different, cards are comfortable. — Took adds.
— However, if your took doesn't want to get saved then you'll both have to fight a and tame a loonie so i can teach you that part.
— Fine for me. — Took says.
— I guess i must do so. — Zeke answers.
— Then go to the plains you just made, there must be something already. — Victor says.
Returning to the plains, Zeke checks that, in fact, there's a handful of Loonies all around doing their chores. A small jackal like humanoid dressed as an Egyptian warrior, a fat black cat with a trashcan tap as a hat, a psychodelic iguana, a mantis dressed as a priest fighting a locust dressed as a warlock, and a small armored elephant. None of them seems to notice Zeke and Took's presence.
— Whoa, an Anewbie! You lucky moron, better try to get that one in your collection ASAP — Victor says.
— Who is the Anewbie? — Zeke asks, and it doesn't pass another second until it gets punched in the stomach as an answer.
— It's me. — The Egyptian warrior jackal says. Sure it is short at less than 2 and a half feet, but oh he packs a great punch.
The other loonies stop to watch.
— Now, here's the thing. — Victor says. — In order for a wild loonie to become tame, it must want to do so. Most loonies only accept being tamed by landlords who can best them, tough the vast majority of tame loonies, and specially born tamed ones actually doesn't mind about the strength of their owners, like your Took.
— So i must beat you and you'll become my friend? — Zeke asks to the Anewbie.
— Of course not.
— What about your master?
— That's fine, only of you actually can beat me. — Zeke recieves yet another punch in the stomach from Anewbie. Then a square appears in the ground.
BATTLE STARTS. Anewbie VERSUS Zeke.
— Fine, I'll teach you the basics of fighting with loonies. — Victor says. — Tap your team into the battle and your battle deck will appear in your hand.
— Got it.
Zeke taps Took in the battlefield and spends 1 Energy to do so.
— Oh, i forgot, you need energy to tap loonies in battle and cast abilities. — Victor says, laughing.
Zeke says something but it's replaced by a goofy sound.
— However you won't spend energy as long as you don't use cards, but try to use one now. — Victor clarifies.
Zeke draws a card, but it also spends energy. Reading the card it seems like it will cost 2 out of the 3 remaining energy Zeke has.
NAME: Tooktook
COST: 2 NRG
EFFECT: Deals 3 sound damage to a target. 20% chance to stun surrounding enemies.
Ignoring whatever Victor may say next, Zeke tries throwing the card at Took and at the same time commanding the name of it. — Took! Tooktook!
The card disappears in the moment the command is said instead of the moment where it collides with the target. Then took starts sending a soundwave attack at Anewbie, it tries to dodge but the attack hits, and it gets stunned.
ANEWBIE HP: 22/30
NRG: 94/100
— So i must say the name of my Loonie and the name on the card. — Zeke says.
— And throw the card at the same time. — Victor says. — Also, notice you got some bonus damage. That's because Took has Sound as one of its elements, you commanded it a Sound type attack. Thats 50% extra damage rounded up. Also, loonies can have up to two out of three passive abilities, by species. Took can have Musician, Stunning and Amazing. I guess yours has the first two ones, double damage on sound attacks and +50% chance to stun on cards that can do so.
— You both had enough chitchat already? — Took says. — You wasted all the time my stun lasted.
The bird loonie is calling attention due to being attacked by the enemy. The Anewbie throws punch upon punch, while Took flies backwards to evade it.
Zeke thinks quickly. — I have zero cards in my hand, but if i draw one i won't have any more spare energy to play it. The best i can do is to flee or fight barehanded.
— Victor. — Zeke asks. — How can i flee a combat?
— Simply doing so, run out of the delimited area. You'll get deduced half your remaining energy rounded up, as well as a penalty of double time to regenerate it for an entire day.
— That's not an option then.
— Did i mention that fighting barehanded costs no energy at all?
— I was thinking just about the same. — Zeke starts running towards the Anewbie and tries to kick it.
Anewbie doesn't see it coming due to being focused on Took, and as a result, it gets flinched, even if just a bit.
ANEWBIE HP: 20/30
NRG: 90/100
— Not a bad kick at all, human. — The loonie complies. — But I'm way better than that! — It says before punching Zeke in the stomach once more. This time, he falls to the ground out of sheer pain.
ZEKE HP: 70/100
NRG: 1/100
Worried about his rival, the Anewbie gets close. — Sorry, did i hurt you badly, mister human? — Anewbie seems really concerned, as if it weren't his intention to cause so much pain. Zeke didn't realize before, but its voice seemed feminine.
— Yes, I'm okay, thank you. — Zeke answers, just before taking her hand and applying a lock, so he gets her hand at her back so with little effort and helped by his greater weight he sets her face on the floor.
— You fooled me! — The Anewbie claims. — Release me, now!
— Or what?
— Or... — Realizing that her opponent seemed to have no idea about the world altogether. — I'm gonna use my legendary power!
— Then do so. — Zeke actually noticed her doubting, so he deduced that she was lying.
— Okay i lied, but please release me, I'll do anything!
— Anything?
— Anything!
— Do you want to be my friend, then?
— No!
— Why not! I'll even teach you how i did this move.
— Can you do that? — The Anewbie asks, excited, but Victor interrupts.
— He can't, for now, he'll need a special device to print custom movement cards. And it's expensive.
— What?! You said that i had all i needed! — Zeke says.
— I said you had all you need to get started. Advanced machines like that are way out of your league, tough.
— So, no movement? Then I'll not let you tame me! — The Anewbie shouts.
— I'll get that machine for you, sooner or later, i promess.
— Deal!
— Well, that was certainly an unexpected result. — Victor says. — Well, now to tame and save Anewbie, follow this steps. First, make it touch your Looniepedia for 3 seconds. On bigger loonies, making them stay quiet and in contact with it for the same period also works. Don't forget that because i won't repeat it.
— I get it. — Zeke says, and then he gets on his knees so Anewbie can get to reach it, and so she does.
— Now she must be in the form of a card in the...
— Transparent socket of my BPack, i guess. — Zeke interrupts Victor.
— Excellent, you are getting it, now, do you notice that around that socket, there's a zipper, right?
— I was expecting you to tell me what that was meant for.
— It's the opposite of the transparent socket. You retrieve cards from that socket, but you load them in your collection by opening the zipper, getting them in, and closing it. Bonus, it also works with everything that is or can be a card. Now go to your house, and get some rest for you and your new buddies.
— You aren't my boss!
— Yes i am, did i forgot to mention that You get a x10 boost to your energy regeneration while sleeping?
— You should said that earlier!
So Zeke walks to the one and only house in that world. It seemed ordinary except for a weird device that looked like if a weighing machine had fusioned with all the time-travel-device cliches of the ninetys. He chose to ignore it altogether and went to sleep a nap. On his dream, the only thing he saw was this words.
PRO TIP: To make your bond with your Loonies stronger, you can grant them personal names. Named Loonies cannot be named again nor sold on the market, so be totally sure that you want to keep them and that you like the name.
In what seemed like just a few seconds but really were 3 whole hours, Zeke woke with one and only one idea on his mind.
— Took, Anewbie, do you both want personal names?