I don't own the show Chaotic or any of the Chaotic characters or Chaotic Monsters. The shopkeepers: Johnny, Gizelle, Syanne and Devin, however, are the productions of my imagination.

"(words)" means that the character is air quoting the word/s. I'm telling you this because Johnny likes to use air quotes.

This story is rated M, just to be on the safe side considering how Gizelle likes to dress and act.

Chapter One: The Rainy Night

Kaz ran like the wind as rain poured down on him, soaking him to the bone. It was pretty late at night, way past his curfew, and all the buildings were dark and closed shut. Kaz's spirits went up when he saw light coming from a window up ahead and headed straight for it. Please be an open store, for the love of God, please be an open store. As he got closer, Kaz was ecstatic to see that it was indeed an open store; a weird, old, and dilapidated derelict store that look like it should have been condemned and torn down years ago, but still a store. A place to seek shelter, no matter how rundown it is. Just before he dashed through the door, he was able to glance at the faded mold encrusted sign above it. Lovely, just lovely.

Kaz heard the soft sound of a door chime jingle as he entered the dimly lit store. It seemed so much brighter when I was outside. A smoke with a strange odor to it drifted through the store, causing Kaz's eyes to water a bit and made his head feel a little woozy. He coughed into his hand as his eyes roamed though the store, taking notice of the strange knickknacks, until his eyes rested on the solitary shopkeeper.

He looked barely over 18 and was snoozing with his head on the counter and a small pile of drool by his head with a little bit glistening on his lips. The ever alert and vigilant shopkeeper thought Kaz as he stepped closer to him. He had spiky blonde hair sticking out from under a grey toque and he was wearing some sort of t-shirt that was obviously too big for him. To his right was a laptop with the screen turned towards the sleeping boy so that Kaz could see the screensaver: a girl with raven-blue hair of the same age wearing nothing but kinky black lingerie and a nose ring in her left nostril sitting on a bed and looking enticingly towards them. The strange smoke seemed to add to her allure much to Kaz's surprise. Nice screensaver. Hopefully they don't get kids in this store.

Kaz turned away from the shopkeeper and began to walk between the shelves, checking out the merchandise. There were bottles filled with strange liquids and weird-looking statues everywhere, as well as some weird pieces of jewelry. Not the best merchandise in the world but still pretty cool.

He was examining an interesting little figurine of a weird-looking blue man when…

"Why, hello there. Checking out our wonderful merchandise? You won't believe the stuff you'll find here"

Kaz turned around to face a young lady with raven-blue hair, a nose ring in her left nostril, and a pierced right eyebrow wearing tight leather pants and a dark purple tube top. "You're… you're the girl from the screensaver" he said with complete shock. Kaz's face turned red as he muttered "I mean… I mean… you look like…"

"I'm the girl from the screensaver?" She looked Kaz in confusion until it dawned to her what he was talking about. "Oh… you mean my little darling's screensaver." She turned to the sleeping boy and said "I see he's getting his precious sleep. Such wonderful, delightful sleep."

She turned to Kaz and gave him a dazzling smile while closing her eyes. Woooow. She looks… "beautiful."

"Hmmm?" She opened one of her eyes before saying "you said something there fella?"

"What? Oh no, oh no. I didn't say anything at all. Nothing at all…"

"No" muttered the girl. "You said something. What was it? I think it was something to do with something being…"

"Beautiful! I was saying that the thing over there is beautiful" said Kaz as he pointed to a random object on the shelf. Please be nice. Please be nice. For the love of all things Chaotic, please be nice.

She turned and eyed the object he was pointed at with doubt but then smiled a more dazzling smile. "Ah, yes. It is a wonderful piece of work and I must admire your eye. You have excellent taste my man, but… isn't it a little hard to see with the protective covering on?" She plucked the object off the shelf, took off the cloth around it and tossed it into Kaz's arms. "Go ahead and look at it. It's really something else. Careful: it's fragile." She smiled sweetly before turning to the counter and crying out "oh darling! You have a customer sweetie!"

Kaz smiled before looking down at the object in his hands. It was a statue of a beautiful naked woman made out of some sort of blue crystal. Well, at least it was nice. He sighed as he looked up and started walking towards the waking young man. As he got closer, he saw that his t-shirt had a picture of a siren sitting on some rocks with waves crashing against the rocks. When he got closer, he saw that the siren had the same face as the young lady in the store.

"Like my (shirt)?" said the young man in a weary voice. "It's (custom-made). (One of a kind)." The guy smiled wearily at him before taking a peek at the statue in his hand. "Awesome choice dude. Planning to (buy) that?"

"Huh? Umm… well… the thing is that I kind of forgot my money and well… it's really not my type of thing and…"

"Oh wow. Look Johnny, it's raining out." Kaz turned around to see the young lady admiring the rain. "The sight just feels me with joy and makes just want to…" Kaz eyes opened wide in surprise as she suddenly ran out the door into the rain. Both him and Johnny ran to the door and stopped short of going out into the rain.

"(Gizelle), come back in here! You'll catch your (death) of cold!"

"Don't be silly Johnny. The rain feels nice. It makes me feel all happy and giddy. Come and join me!"

"No way (Gizelle). I haven't (stepped) outside this store in (five) years and I'm not about to start now."

Kaz turned to Johnny and said "you haven't left this store in five years? You can't be serious."

"It's true dude" he said as he turned around and headed back to the counter. "It's my job to (watch) over this store and its (merchandise) and I can't do it if I'm (outside), now can I?"

Yeah, right. You can't even take care of it from inside the store. Not while sleeping anyway. And what's with all the stupid air quotes? Kaz took one last glance at Gizelle, who was now lying on the ground catching the raindrops in her mouth, before walking over and placing the statue on the counter. Johnny eyed the statue and then turned to Kaz with a shrewd look in his eyes. "I'm not getting it. It's not my type of style." Johnny kept staring at him. "No really. I'm more into things… Chaotic."

"Ah, (Chaotic). You mean that (card game) don't you? We could (find) some (cards) for you if you want."

"What? Really? I mean, you don't look like…."

"We do special orders for some (customers) dude. We could look for some (cards) for ya, but… it would be preferable if they're… (difficult) to find. (Devin) prefers it that way."

"Devin? Who's Devin? You know, forget it. There's no way you would be able to find some decent Chaotic cards. A store like this? No way."

"Yes way. (We) can do it dude, or rather (Devin) and (Syanne) can do it. He and (Syanne) are the ones that (look) for everything. They're really good at it. Seriously, pick your card. (Any card)."

Kaz gave Johnny a doubtful look before it changed into a sly one. "Okay then (Johnny), I tell you a card that your (friends) can look for. How about… um…." Think Kaz, think. Someone hard to find, someone difficult to obtain, someone rare. "Heptadd."

Kaz smiled triumphantly at Johnny but the smile dropped when he heard him say "Heptadd? Okay, no problem dude. We'll call you when we find it." Johnny grabbed the laptop and hit some keys rapidly. He smiled at the shock Kaz and offered him an umbrella. "You should head home dude. Take this umbrella so that you can stay dry. After all…" he said as Kaz took the umbrella "… you only came here for shelter from the rain, right? By the way, you can keep the umbrella. Consider it a (gift). See ya later dude."

Before Kaz could even say a word, Johnny laid his head back on the counter and began to snore softly. He's already fallen back to sleep. Sigh, the vigilant shopkeeper strikes again. What a joker. There's no way them will be able to get Heptadd. No way at all.

Kaz stepped outside and opened up the umbrella to see that it had an interesting design on it made from green, brown and white on a black surface. He slowly walked past Gizelle, who was now skipping around singing 'Singing In The Rain.' He felt himself blush when he noticed how her wet clothes were sticking to her and…

He made a mad dash for it. He had to get home before anyone notice he wasn't there. In a way, I envy Johnny.