Author Comment: I want to thank my Beta-reader FollowerOfAnhamirak for his time on this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.

The chapter has been late because my Beta-Reader had been busy for a while, but he gave time to finish this one. At least, the next chapter won't be a week to wait before release.

Lulu was at the back of the line waiting for her turn to board the train and wondered if she would enter it in time. Behind her the explosions were still booming loud and clear. And from the sounds of them the battle causing them they would continue for a while longer. Worse though, was that something told her that the trouble might be coming their way soon.

Lulu turned around as a louder explosion sounded from the Port Court. Gazing back, she also noticed Peyton and his friends speaking together. She put her hands together, wondered if she should wait here or join them. The battle was unnerving and she needed something to distract herself. Making up her mind she walked over towards them.

"Peyton!" She waved at him.

"Lulu! You're here," the boy waved at her with a smile.

"Hey. I came a little late for the train. I wasn't that far ahead and I decided I would rather wait with you than stand over there on my own. I don't want to overthink everything," Lulu admitted.

"Don't worry. We'll make it," Cassandra reassured her.

Looking at the woman Lulu could see the resemblance between her and Kaz. For the last couple weeks, she had heard that his mother was here and now she knew that that was the case. Seeing them next to each other it was actually a little obvious, "You must be Kaz's mother."

"Yes. I hope you're nice to my son." Cassandra said somewhat sternly.

"Mom," her son whined.

The group chuckled.

Reggie smiled, "And I'm Reggie."

"Lulu." She reached out to grab his hand and shook it.

As the battle raged on, the eight spoke with each other in order to distract themselves from the battle going on near them.

Chapter 68: Battle For Chaotic Part 3

The creatures entered the Imthor Drome as the M'arrillians kept chasing them. They turned around and fired at a few creatures closing in on them. The battlegear up above managed to fire a few missiles at them, some making contact with them. Likewise, lasers fired at any M'arrillians who dared to approach them.

Chaor let out a grunt of annoyance as they came closer, forcing them into the Drome. The red creature gave it only a quick look as they entered it. Inside was a large room with little light, but nothing else here compared to what he had seen on the screens. He guessed that with things as they were, things had been put away given that there were no matches. Maybe there never would be anymore after this.

"Keep running to the end of the room. Go to the other door. We will trap as many of them as possible," Crellan's said from around the room.

That didn't sit well with Chaor.

Theb-Saar let out a small smile as they reached the exit and the door closed, "Let's go around and deal with those who won't be trapped."

Maxxor noticed that Theb-Saar sounded confident. He knew the Mipedian king had something in mind, some nasty surprise for the M'arrillians.

Odu-Bathax charged first as he prepared his battlegear, ready to burn some M'arrillians without any mercy.

The others stayed behind him, wanting to counter attack and push fear into their enemies. Above they saw the Battlegear flying over the Drome to attack the M'arrillians from above while the creatures attacked from the left side.

Heading forward Chaor felt some excitement now. They now had a chance to do some real damage against the M'arrillians, and he wanted to show them that they wouldn't go down, even if there were fewer of them.

"No more M'arrillians are coming from the Port Court," Crellan informed them.

They knew that those who weren't trapped in the drome would be enemies they had to crush.

Inside the Drome, the M'arrillians gazed around in confusion, Milla'iin among them. The room suddenly lit up and they soon found themselves in the desert. They could feel the heat of the dry land of Al-Mipedim.

"How are we in Al-Mipedim?" One of the soldiers asked, sounding apprehensive.

The Coralsmith was impressed that they had somehow managed to recreate something like this. He knew about the Chaotic matches. Ending up in a situation like this wasn't that surprising. The illusion was almost perfect. It was so good that their own body felt as if they were in the exact location.

"We aren't really in Al-Mipedim!" Milla'iin exclaimed loudly in an attempt to avoid having any creatures lose their sanity or panic. He wasn't sure which would happen first, "We need to get out of here. It's just an illusion."

"But it's hot," another soldier replied.

"It's only an illusion. This Drome thing has recreated everything. The heat is also just an illusion to deceive us," Bahrakatan told them, "The power coming from the Cothica is that great. This is only a deception. No need to panic over falsehood."

The soldiers began to calm down as they accepted everything as false.

"We are still in the Drome, we just need to find a way to break the illusion and get out of here," Milla'iin told them.

The Codemasters watched over the creatures inside the Drome and outside of it.

"They didn't panic as I hoped they would," Tirasis commented as he hit the table by his side.

"We were expecting that," Imthor told him as he observed what was going on outside of the drome. The battle raged on and the alliance's strength, with their battle machines, was on par with that of the M'arrillians. Still, they had better organization and were slowly forcing the M'arrillians to split up into smaller and more vulnerable groups.

"Still," Crellan muttered, feeling like everything wasn't safe.

He gazed at the other battlefields. The M'arrillians were resisting the machines as they tried to reach the Chaotic Players. He looked more closely as he noticed something was missing.

Hotekk was the one who realized what it was, "Tirasis! Search for Aval'par right now!"

Tirasis hurried to do so and quickly spotted where he was, "Dammit!"

Crellan saw what Tirasis had and saw what the creature's target was.

The Chaotic Players continued to wait for their turn to evacuate. After talking for a while, they just remained there, waiting quietly for their turn.

"It's getting closer," Kaz voiced quietly as they got close to the station.

"I kinda wish Chaotic was ready for this kind of emergency, but it wasn't something they expected," Reggie sighed, looking both nervous and resigned.

"An all out invasion by the M'arrillians with some kind of portal wasn't something anyone would expect. Even my father couldn't see that coming or be able to prepare any countermeasures for that," Alexandre admitted.

Tom noticed a flash of purple in the sky and felt immediate dread. He knew what it was before the warning came.

"Careful! Aval'par is coming!" Crellan shouted from the speakers.

"On the ground!" Alexandre ordered as he pushed a few of them down.

Kaz hadn't been so lucky and quickly felt the tendril grabbing his ankle and lifting him up into the air, "Help!"

"Kaz!" His mother and best friend yelled as he went out of their reach.

Cassandra gazed down as her mind was bursting with emotions. Her motherly instincts were screaming to chase after the monster that had taken her son. At the same time though, she knew he was only code right now and not really him. She ignored the panic behind her as everyone was yelling in panic.

The remaining teenagers and Alexandre were also panicking, trying to figure out what to do.

Cassandra gritted her teeth as she made up her mind. She didn't care if Kaz was only code. Her motherly side won out and she began to rush after the creature, wherever he was going.

Tom immediately followed her, with his friends and Alexandre following close behind.

Lulu and Reggie gazed at each other. They ignored those shouting how the others were stupid to even think of trying to save Kaz. Resolved, they followed them. It didn't matter if they would be helpful or not.

The group was running across the field when Tom's scanner rang. Panting, he pulled out his scanner and accepted the call, "Yes Codemaster Crellan?"

"What are you doing Tom? You should turn back and head to the train station."

"They got Kaz. I'm not going to let Kaz's mom go after Aval'pal on her own. Sorry," Tom quickly apologized.

The Codemaster sighed in resignation and simply said, "I'll keep you in sight. If any M'arrillians are coming at you, you'll know before you see them."

"Thanks," Tom said hurriedly before hanging up.

As they flew Kaz tried to fight back and escape from the tendril holding him, "Should've been like Sarah," Kaz grunted as he thought about her pocket knife. He should have been armed for anything. Even Peyton had gotten something for self-defence, but not him. It would also be much easier since his mother knew what was going on here. He had nothing to hide to bring a weapon with him.

"You have made a mistake human, and you will pay greatly for that." Aval'par said gloatingly, "And stop struggling. You have no strength compared to our tribe. If you keep this on, I will enter your mind and have you under my control. Chaor will surely appreciate it."

Kaz ignored him and refused to stop. He was just a set of code. If he fell, it wouldn't be that fatal.

"Stupid human," Aval'par thought when he noticed the boy thinking a little too casually of dying.

"AVAL'PAR!" someone yelled furiously.

A flash of red rushed towards the M'arrillian and tackled him.

Kaz was suddenly released and saw Chaor with a Torwegg on his back.

The Underworlder blasted a fire attack straight into the face of Aval'par and sent him away. Incensed, Chaor was relentless in his offensive and sent more attacks, forcing the M'arrillian to retreat.

The boy yelped as gravity pulled him to the ground.

Chaor turned around and flew as quickly as he could towards the boy. He was fast approaching the ground and would crash soon.

Kaz wanted to yell at him to let him get coded. He didn't want to put his hero in danger. He couldn't be heard though as Chaor was distracted.

Chaor grunted as he raised his hands and grabbed the boy. He saw that they were far too close to the ground to go back up. He held the teenager against his chest and tried to slow down as much as he could, but they still crashed. He passed through the ground and rolled down as he landed on the hard ground. He didn't care what happened to him though and just focused on keeping the boy safe. When he stopped rolling down, he was on his back and the boy was safely unharmed on his chest. The creature felt his body was sore and aching, but it was nothing too terrible. He just had the worst fall of his life, but he had to be strong. He panted as he sat down and the boy was now on his lap.

Shaking his head, Kaz quickly stood up and almost lost his balance. All that rolling around had made him a little dizzy.

Chaor recovered faster and stood up, "You alright Kazzy?" He quickly assessed his surroundings.

"I'm… almost good," Kaz replied absently. It took a few more seconds before he recovered, "But you…"

"Falling down stairs won't kill me," Chaor grunted.

"S-stairs?" Kaz asked as he looked around.

The two were in a corridor that was almost pitch black. The only source of light was coming from above.

"W-where are we?"

"Underground. Maybe some part you've never been in," Chaor replied, closing his eyes for a few seconds.

"We should go back and-," Kaz felt a hand on his shoulder, "C-Chaor?"

"The situation isn't going perfectly well on our end. I fear they might try to find the portal to your world to escape us," the Underworlder admitted.

Kaz knew the situation was that bad if the ruler of the Underworld admitted that himself. He also knew where this was going. His promise with Chaor. He made it and had to keep it. Not only that, but the situation really felt bad with an army of M'arrillians on the surface. They were safe for now, but for how long? "I'm afraid of that too," Kaz admitted, noticing a few bruises on the creature, but it was nothing too bad. That made him feel a little better. Still, a question was bugging him, "How did you know I was captured by him?"

"The Codemaster told us," Chaor replied, rolling his shoulder.

"You know I'm just a bunch of code, right?" Kaz reminded him. He got no answer from the creature, making him smile. He knew that his hero hadn't thought about it and just reacted to save him. If it was anything else, he wouldn't have had silence for an answer, "Thanks."

"We need to reach the portal before the M'arrillians," Chaor grunted. He faked coughing once as if trying to signal something to the boy.

Kaz sighed and nodded, "Yeah. I promised and we can't let them reach it. I don't know where it is. No one's probably ever been there before." He stopped talking when his scanner biped. He opened it and saw his mother, "Mom."

"You're okay! I was so worried when Aval'par took you!" his mother had a relieved smile. She also looked like she had aged a year or two.

Kaz smiled nervously and scratched the back of his head, "I'm fine. Chaor saved me."

"Where are you?! We're searching for you right now!" His mother exclaimed.

"Underground. Somewhere. I don't know where. We felt from the sky," Kaz decided not to explain what happened or his hero would go straight into denial.

"We'll search for you," his mother promised.

"Mom. We are going to find a… a way out," Kaz said, hesitating to pick his next words, "Hope we won't get in the wrong direction."

"Just be careful okay. We'll search for you. Tom will call the Codemasters," his mother informed him.

"Okay. We'll go now. We need some light," Kaz replied.

"Okay. Chaor. Thank you for saving my son," his mother added

"Fuh," Chaor growled.

Kaz ended the call. He hoped that his mother really understood his message. He had told her about the deal with Chaor. He wondered if she had told his friends.

"What did you do?" Chaor asked as he began to walk along the corridor.

Kaz raised his scanner, the light illuminating the ruler. He couldn't deny it as the creature wasn't really asking, "I told my mother. You didn't forbid it."

Chaor stopped as he turned to face the boy with a small smirk. The boy spotted a loophole in their deal, "You know Kaz. KidChaor. That's a good name." Saying nothing else he went forward.

The player didn't know why he was being praised, but it was better than facing Chaor's wrath. He followed him as they searched for the portal.

The Codemasters watched the progress of the battle.

Codemaster Imthor looked away as he noticed an alert pop up on one of the screens. He pulled up the screen, which showed Chaor and Kaz walking through the inner part of Chaotic. He quickly sent Kaz a call to ask him what they were doing down there. This was the last thing they needed to deal with.

AC: This is the end of this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.

Next: Imthor asked what happened to Kaz and what they were doing. Theb-Saar had a nasty surprise for the M'arrillians in their battle.