Forces Chapter One
Suggested Theme:
Main Theme- Last Day of Magic by The Kills
On February the 16th, at exactly 2:05 PM, Kaz decides it is time to bid farewell to his best friends. He believes that the invasion will happen soon, but not today. He has been with his friends all day today in the PortCourt, watching them in matches or watching other matches with them. They are on the ground floor of the PortCourt and only a flight of stairs away from the transport discs to Perim.
It is a "lazy day" for the group, as Peyton would say. However, the events of yesterday has made time, time with his friends, even more precious. He knows that his words will unnerve them; they might believe that he's going to commit suicide, but he'll assure them that he won't. He'll just tell them the truth again, which might earn him a laugh from Peyton, a glare from Sarah, and a dismissive look from Tom. Then, they'll just return to watching matches and pretending that it never happened. Kaz is happy with that likely outcome.
"Hey, guys, I have something to tell you all." Tom, Sarah, and Peyton stop watching the match in an instant. It isn't like the match was all that interesting, but the look on Kaz's face raises red flags in their minds. Kaz has the strangest smile on his face that the group, including Tom who has known Kaz longer than anyone here, has ever seen. The look is akin to someone who knows he is about to die.
"I just want to say that you guys are the best friends that I will ever have. I hope we'll get to meet each other again, someday. We might be changed, for the worst, but I do hope we're still friends in that far-flung future." Every word out of his mouth makes him feel like they were going to be his last. His best friends look very, very concerned. He did not expect them to react this strongly. They look scared like he told them that he was going to blow his brains out back on Earth.
"Kaz, are yo-" Kaz isn't sure who asked first. Tom, Sarah, and Peyton opened their mouths at the same time, but whoever asked first was unable to complete their question. At exactly 2:07 PM, Chaotic is invaded.
SWOOSH!
CRACK!
BOOM!
A violent, red wormhole of code tears apart the PortCourt. Tables, food, and even some players are flung into the air by the ferocious winds that the temporal shift generated. Their table flips over and pins them beneath, which causes them to miss a minute of the invasion. However, they may have missed seeing a minute, but they can certainly hear it. They can hear screams, all of them from players, and Creatures calling out their attacks.
The noise becomes earsplitting motivation for them to get the table off of them. They should've stayed under the table, if only to be spared the sight of bloodied corpses. As much mental preparation Kaz has undergone for the invasion, he could not help but vomit onto the floor. His dream did not prepare him for the death of others. Mercifully, his best friends share his same reaction. None of them has ever seen a dead body—especially not ones with horrified, last-minute-of-life expressions—in their lives, not even ones of Creatures. It was widely theorized that when a player dies; the player disintegrates into code like Creatures in Drome battles. The theory has now been debunked.
Drolly, Kaz notes that his vomit is almost the color of his shirt. That's what he gets for eating Maxxoroni & Cheese. He doesn't dare look at his friends' vomit puddles; it might cause him to vomit again. He wipes away some spittle and focuses his mind. They need to get out of here now. But he doesn't see their Scanners anywhere. Not even under the table.
"Shit! Our Scanners must be around here somewhere!" Kaz hears his voice crack like he was starting puberty again. He is trembling and sweating like he might faint or go into a seizure. His eyes dart around quicker than his heartbeats. The smoke and the deafening sounds from the Creatures' attacks are preventing Kaz from locating the Scanners. He turns to ask if his best friends found them, but he notices that his friends aren't even moving. They are frozen in place with stunned expressions and bits of vomit clinging to their pants. They watch as the Creatures destroy their world away from home.
"PEYTON! TOM! SARAH!" Kaz screams at them. Like a curse has been broken, they tremble and clutch their heads. Tom is breathing heavily like he's having a panic attack. Sarah eyes dart around like she's trying to find an exit. Peyton heaves as though he might vomit again.
"GUYS! We need to find our Scanners, port back to Earth, and tell everybody what's going on! My dream has come true! The Creatures are going to invade Earth! We have to go!" Kaz barks orders like a drill sergeant. He isn't used to being a leader. He didn't even bother to prepare himself for being a leader. But the situation calls for it since Tom is freaking out. If they weren't in a hurry, Kaz would've smugly told them that he was right.
"I saw our Scanners in the air and hit the floor. I don't think they broke, but they were scattered by all the running by players until they…I think mine went west. Peyton's was to the east, while yours and Tom's went upstairs. Somehow. I think they did, but this chaos makes me uncertain." Thank the Cothica that Sarah paid attention, she still looks scared, but at least she has regained her wits. Tom is still out of it, while Peyton appears to sluggishly coming back to reality.
"Okay, Sarah, you find your Scanner and port out of here. Call me as soon as you return to Earth! I'll help Peyton and Tom look for their Scanners since…they're useless." Sarah looks west and sees Danian Mandiblors blasting some UnderWorld soldiers. Kaz realizes that there is now way that Sarah can make it there unscathed. She can't go by herself.
"Don't worry, Kazzer, I'm good. I can find my Scanner on my own. So can Sar-bear." Kaz's face creases with worry lines. The corpses in the PortCourt probably thought the same before they were killed. There just humans against Creatures with powers that they can never hope to obtain. What chance do they have against these Creatures?
"Kaz, you just worry about finding your Scanner and getting out of here. Peyton and I can handle it ourselves. But Tom might need your help." Sarah, Peyton, and Kaz share a smile that is supposed to be reassuring, but their eyes scream the exact opposite. Nevertheless, they depart. Sarah goes west, in the direction of feuding Danians and UnderWorlders. Peyton heads east where it was a graveyard of corpses and robots. Kaz tugs Tom along to the second floor where the essential transport discs are. Unfortunately for them, they are caught in a battle between UnderWorlders and OverWorlders. Like in his dream.
Kaz curses himself for following his dream's route in this reality. He should've just discarded this route and waited for the battle to go out like a key shutting off the ignition. Instead, he's at the heart of the ignition and the key is jammed inside. The PortCourt's tiled floor bursts beneath their feet, but Tom refuses to react like a lifeless husk. Kaz wishes that Tom would just snap out of it and move by himself. But then Tom would probably go running to Maxxor and it could end with Tom accusing him of being a traitor. Or doing something else stupid when he wants to be the hero.
Their Scanners might be here, at least Sarah said so. But then again, they could be smashed into a million pieces by now. That's very possible. And even if they do find their Scanners, will Tom be able to send himself back to Earth? Even with Kaz's screaming and the flurry of war around them, Tom has yet to do anything other than letting Kaz drag him around. Kaz wonders if their roles would be reversed if he dismissed his dream like his friends originally did.
Kaz drags Tom down to the floor with him when Flame Orbs come toward their direction. Briefly, Kaz believed an UnderWorlder had orders from Chaor to attack them, but then he hears a sizzling sound like water turning fire into steam. The floor then rumbles like Chaor and Maxxor have finally meet. He figures that Maxxor must be using a Lavalanche attack.
More fire attacks meet water attacks above Kaz's and Tom's heads. They dare not move from their spot. Kaz hopes there's a lull in the fight, but the rumbling keeps getting worse and the attacks are getting closer to their spot. If they move, then there's a good chance that an attack will hit them. If it's a water attack, they might get a broken bone from the pressure of the attack. If it's a fire attack, then they could be burnt to a crisp. Kaz doesn't want to break a leg or be burnt to death.
Kaz may not be able to get back up, but he can turn his head. To his right, he can see the UnderWorlders crowding around the transport discs like they were hoarding the Cothica. He can see Takinom, the yellow demoness in tarnished armor, barking orders from above. She launches an Inferno Gust to someone—most likely, Intress—and then dodges a Rip Tide attack. Kaz doesn't see Ulmar or Chaor, so they might be at the farthest side of the room. Hopefully, far away from a transport disc.
Then, he swivels his head left and sees the OverWorlders. Intress is barking—or would it be hissing since she is a cat?—orders at some OverWorld soldiers while launching some water attacks. He does not see Najarin, so the old Muge might be helping out Maxxor against Chaor. Too bad, the old Muge probably could've used his Mugic to save their skins right now.
He hears the terrible whirling and ripping sounds that a distant wormhole is generating. The wormhole sounds like it's on the second floor and in the direction that Sarah was in. Kaz hopes that Sarah was able to port home. Hopefully, she didn't get sucked into the vortex or brainwashed by the Danians. Either way, Ulmar's machine is still unstable, so there may be hope that the rest of the Creatures could be contained here.
There is a lull in the battle. It might be from the troops finally noticing the sounds of a distant wormhole. It might be from the ceasefire orders from Intress and Takinom. Kaz isn't certain, but he takes the opportunity to get up from the ground and run. He fails to account the paranoia running on both sides and that wearing bright clothes (like his shirt, vest, and hair that happens to look like fire) makes him a prime target for paranoid soldiers.
What he also fails to take account for is how much of a dead weight Tom is. Getting him down to the floor was easy, but lifting him back up without any help is a strain on Kaz's stressed body. Tom is like an anchor tethering Kaz to a fairly dangerous spot, which also allows the soldiers ample amount of time to aim.
Iron Balls in his dream just knocked the air out of his lungs; real Iron Balls are actually bruising and bone-breaking. Kaz screams as he hears his own kneecaps shatter; he crumples to the floor and the battle is reignited. He screams and screams from the agony being radiated from his broken bones. He's pretty damn certain that most of the bones in his left arm are broken and the broken bits are sticking through his skin like a baby whose teeth are coming in.
He is a screaming, hysterical wreck now. There is no way he'll find the Scanners. He can't even breathe without his ribs cracking like the PortCourt's foundation. He's failed. There's no way his Earth self will be able to do what needs to be done in time. He wishes he could just curl up into a ball, but his injuries can't even allow him to exhale air without crying. He's failed again.
"KAZ!" H'earring's nasally, panicky screech cuts through Kaz's scream fest. He stops screaming and lifts his head to see H'earring. The green, mutant-rabbit has two Scanners in his small hands. Kaz smiles briefly, hoping the Scanners were his and Tom's.
"Oh, H'earring! Thank you…." His cracking ribs never cease to punish him for breathing more heavily. He wants to ask the scout where he got the Scanners, but his ribs would give him more pain. His right hand snatches one of the Scanners and he turns it around to see whose Scanner it is. The back is engraved with: MajorTom.
"Tom, please. I need you. Please, I need you!" Kaz cries into Tom's ears. If his screams didn't reach his best friend, would groveling work? Tom turns his head towards him. His glazed eyes shine again like he has regained consciousness; he coughs back into reality.
"Kaz? What? What the fuck happened to your arm!" Kaz laughs and cries. Tom is so lucky that Kaz's body is in agony, or else Kaz would've bashed Tom's head in with his own Scanner. He can feel H'earring duck on top of them to dodge another wave of Iron Balls. Kaz cries out from added pressure on his bruised body.
"Take the Scanner. Port home. I'll follow. Listen to your dad. For once, just do what you're told!" The words leave like bullets from his trembling lips, but they are clear enough for Tom to hear over the roar of battle. For once, Tom listens to Kaz and ports out. Kaz could laugh and cry again, but he needs to port out too.
"H'earring, my Scanner!" H'earring rolls off of Kaz's body and to Kaz's right side, much to the relief of Kaz's aching body. Kaz uses his good, right arm to grasp his Scanner, but H'earring refuses to loosen his grip on the Scanner. The UnderWorld Scout looks directly into Kaz's red-rimmed eyes.
"Chaor was the one who gave me the Scanners. I think he still has a use for you. So, Kaz, please run!" Again, H'earring is trying to save his friend, but not another species. Well, it's not like he can save the human race at this point. Neither can Kaz. H'earring lets go of Kaz's Scanner.
"Did you ever eat those treats I brought?" Kaz wants to end this on a joke, even if his lungs are against another wasted breath. H'earring smiles in a sad, small way like a funeral goer at a stranger's funeral.
"No." Kaz snorts and then winces. He would've responded with, "What a waste." But his ribs and his messed-up, left arm is begging him to port out. H'earring's watery eyes are also begging him to go. And he does.
It is exactly 2:47 PM when Chaotic Kaz returns to his Earth self. At 2:35 PM, his Earth self was released from school early when news of giant "ants" invading Paris broke out on every channel and on every social media platform. The school briefly told students to stay in their seats and to remain calm. However, the students knew that the world has come to an end, so why should they listen to the teachers? This isn't like when terrorists attack civilians or some madman committing genocide. These are monsters, literal monsters, from another dimension invading their world like in the movies. And there is no deus-ex-machnia that humanity can pull out of its ass to save themselves. This will probably end with the planet nuking itself. So the students decided to run like Hell to their homes and have emotional breakdowns with their families.
Kaz did not see Tom when he ran home because they were in different classes at the time. Also, he was being aggressive and pushing people out of his way to make it back home. He spent the rest of the time gathering his bombs and watching the news while waiting for his Chaotic self to return. He found out what happened to Sarah at 2:45 PM; she is "with" the Danians and helping them conquer Paris. It was a blurry cellphone picture of her, but all the channels ran her picture on endless loop. Even with the awful quality of the picture, he could see that she has antennas now, which means the Danians did something more than brainwashing her.
Now, Kaz has all of his Chaotic memories and dry heaves in reaction. He collects himself to call his friends and see if they made it home, but there is a "stop sign" flashing on his Scanner. This normally happens to signal to the player that their Chaotic self is still in Chaotic and not ready to come back, which also prevents the player from accessing their online deck and other functions (like calling other players on Earth) are disabled. However, his Chaotic self is already back, so did the CodeMasters just disable the Scanners in order to prevent any players from returning and getting hurt? What's the fucking point in this? Kaz snarled in his thoughts.
His Scanner is useless for an unforeseeable amount of time, but he still has his cellphone. He doesn't know Peyton's number and he knows Sarah is alive at least. He should call Tom because he should be at home and packing his things if he's actually listening to his dad, but his mom hasn't called him yet. Maybe his mom is in a state of a shock like Tom was back in Chaotic. She's pretty fragile as it is, so she's probably suffering some sort of breakdown. He dials his mom's number and only gets her automated voicemail, so he decides to leave her a message.
"Hey, mom, if you haven't figured out already, Chaotic is real! So no need to question my sanity under your breath anymore! Sorry, terrible time to be smug about this. Anyways, I'll be going with Tom's family pretty soon. Just got to take care of a few things first. So stay in Chicago. Don't come back here to get me, I'll get back to you. I promise. Also, I love you, mom." Kaz was going to call Tom, but then he hears the same, terrible sounds of a wormhole opening like in the PortCourt.
SWOOSH!
CRACK!
BOOM!
Kaz breaks out into a cold sweat; in his guts, there is a feeling of dread for knowing what will likely happen next. The pragmatic thing to do is to call Tom and tell him that he needs a ride out of town. Then, he and his best friend can kiss Cinderella Village goodbye and let the Creatures tear it and each other apart. He can save himself, but then Ulmar will still have his machine and the UnderWorlders will win.
Kaz squeezes his cellphone like he wants to break it, but then silences his cellphone and tosses it on his loft bed along with his useless Scanner. His bombs are the size of cherry bombs but have the papery and wrinkly appearances of Bang Snaps. The bombs are made with a mixture of gunpowder and his homemade hair gel that keeps his hair gravity defying. Like Bang Snaps, once the bomb hits their target, they explode. However, one explosion wouldn't even be enough to burn a hole through Ulmar's machine; he will have to use all of his bombs to be able to destroy it. Unfortunately, he has only five bombs since he had to spend most of his gunpowder and hair gel for experimenting. He hopes that the five bombs will be enough to destroy the wormhole generator or sufficiently damage it.
He pockets the bombs and runs out of his house. Society hasn't died since there isn't any looting going on, but he sees many people driving faster than it is legally required. He can see his neighbors, many of them with kids and spouses, jamming most of their possessions in their cars and driving away while taking out their mailbox or ruining their lawn. He can still smell burnt rubber marking the pavement even after the cars have been long gone.
He runs to school because he figures it would be a good starting point. In his dream, Ulmar's machine was literally in front of the school. At worst, he'll just encounter Mr. McGrutter and will have the opportunity to beat the shit out of that greasy traitor. Or maybe he'll let loose a bomb on him and watch the man burn for selling out his species and using Kaz's hard work in doing so.
On his way to the school, he sees cracks in the tar-black roads being turned into jagged fissures; he has a feeling that he is getting pretty close to a battle between Creatures, most likely between UnderWorlders and OverWorlders if his dream is accurate. He hears metal on metal clashing along with the hissing sounds of fire meeting water. He hopes that the Creatures will be too busy killing each other to attack him.
His school looks like someone used a Viledriver to wreck it. The L-shaped building is on fire and the vertical part of the building is nothing more than smoldering rubble. During rough days at school, he would wish that the school would get destroyed along with most of the people in it. However, he hopes that no one is trapped inside the building. His heart beats violently at what he sees next.
Maybe by the divinity of the Cothica or by the cruelty of the universe, Ulmar's machine and Mr. McGrutter are right in front of the school. Along with a small contingent of red-armored, UnderWorld soldiers standing a foot away from the evil pair. He has no idea why Ulmar would not be manning his invention, but his mind does not care about the mad scientist's whereabouts at the moment. His mind, his soul, and perhaps his code are focused on Mr. McGrutter. His out-of-shape science teacher with the bad comb over is standing right beside the machine like he's attached to the hip. There's a snickering expression on his face like he is certain that he will get his country now. He does not see Kaz. More importantly, he does not see the flicker of bloodlust in Kaz's pitiless eyes.
Again, by divinity or cruelty, the soldiers become enthralled with the battle between Maxxor and Chaor. The soldiers figure that this might be the battle in which the mighty OverWorld leader will finally fall. Kaz can hear the attacks being exchanged by the monoliths of power, but his attention is solely drawn to the machine and the traitor. He sees the guards' attention are drawn to the clash, so Kaz dashes as fast as he could—in order to get closer to the machine while not being seen—and pulls out his bombs.
Mr. McGrutter sees him in that instant; he sees a blur of orange and red like Kid Flash. The traitor opens his mouth to alert the guards, but Kaz pitches his bombs right at the machine. Kaz believes that the bombs will just create a small fire hot enough to melt the machine and maybe burn Mr. McGrutter. He forgets to account that Ulmar is the one who built the machine and the Creature is known for using experimental, volatile materials.
BOOM!
Kaz watches as the machine and Mr. McGrutter are instantly consumed by hellish, red flames. The guards fall to the ground and clutch their helmets; Kaz can hear them screaming. He turns to run as fast as he can home. He only gets half a foot away before he is hit in the ass with fire. He doesn't know if the fire attack came from a guard or some other Creature. The fire burns through his pants and sears his ass and upper thighs like a steak. He screams and falls to the ground; he can smell his own cooked flesh and hears the ominous stomping of Creatures coming to him. He's crying uncontrollably from his burns and from the fact that he is about to die. Chaor definitely saw the explosion and probably ordered some of his troops to kill the perpetrator.
He feels claws dig into his back and flip him over, so his burnt ass and thighs are chaffed against the hot, tar road. He is flailing and screaming harder than before when he sees the Creatures that find him are the same guards that were caught in the explosion. He can see the red helmets are melted and warped around their face; their yellow eyes promise that they will flay Kaz alive with Whepcracks.
Then, like ants being burnt out of existence by a magnifying glass, the guards are burnt out of existence by blue fire. In his grateful, tear-stained view, a Creature clad like a dominatrix with pale features appears before him. She bends over and her face has a guarded expression like she considers this burnt, crying boy a possible threat. The ends of her white hair flicker with blue flames. Kaz finally realizes that the Creature is Skithia.
"Please, help me." Kaz whimpered and croaked like a toddler who wanted his mother fix his booboo. He knows that he sounds pathetic and he has nothing to offer her. Hell, she might've seen him blow up her ticket home, so she might be here to inflict retribution.
She says nothing and cradles Kaz like he is a baby. Then, she runs faster than he ever thought she was capable of. Kaz nestles against her chest, feeling so overwhelmingly happy to be alive. He feels his mind finally going and folding due to the agony of his burns and from adrenaline crash. His last thought is a happy one. His loved ones are far from the fray. Mom is in Chicago. Sarah is in Paris. Peyton is….somewhere safe. Tom is also somewhere safe too. They'll be fine as long as they are far away. Far, far, far away from the end of their world.
Author's Comments- Wow, this is more than I planned to write for this chapter, but it was necessary. Well, at least to me it was necessary. I have a feeling this might continue for a while until I can get things "settled" for all the characters. Also, Cinderella Village is the fictional hometown of Kaz and Tom in Virginia, America. I decided to use fictional places and towns because I was going to use places that actually exist. However, the places I originally picked were places I have never been to, so it would've become grossly inaccurate in my descriptions. The only real places will most likely be Paris and Chicago, even though I have never been to those places, because of references and my personal theories.
Now, back to the story and the characters. Kaz may seem like an action hero for being the one to keep his "cool" sort of. However, he has had weeks of preparing for the invasion. He knows that the invasion will happen, while his friends were caught off guard to put it loosely. So when the invasion actually happens, Sarah, Peyton, and Tom are freaking the Hell out that the impossible actually came true. In their minds before the invasion, they were just kids with a special place that can take them to the coolest place ever.
Now, Tom's reaction may be out of character to many, but not to me. In Perim, Tom has always been able to react after some sort of surprise like in the first episode in which he decides to defend Mezzmarr from Nauthilax. However, I don't think he has seen death. He probably believes that Creatures may dissipate into code when they die, or become spirits like Tangath Toborn did in the last episode of the series, or maybe live forever somehow like Najarin. It can technically be applied to players since they can port out and be healed from their injuries. When he sees Creatures killing players, it breaks him or at least his belief that death can never occur in Chaotic. I remember him telling Maxxor that he knows Perim is real during the "Castle or Bodhran" episodes, but I think he forgot about something far more real. Death.