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

Cassandra was outside, taking advantage and eating a little something while she was on her break. Lately, her job had gotten tiresome and she wondered when that would end. The last few days, she had had a bad feeling about what was going on in Chaotic. Her son and his friends too. Alexandre had tried to reassure her, but it wasn't working. They all knew something big would be coming soon. Lost in her mind, worried, her scanner rang. Quickly, Cassandra grabbed it and got all of her memories back. Her breath picked up as she realized just how badly Chaotic was in danger.

Her coworkers came out to join her a few minutes later, just after she got another message.

The M'arrillians were coming. She knew the implications. She knew what would come next.

"Hey. Are you okay?" A man asked her.

"I'm-," Cassandra tried to think of an answer. "I have to go home. Got a message from my son. He might be in trouble." There was no point in working anyway with M'arrillians showing up in the city. She also didn't bother telling them about the M'arrillians. They wouldn't believe her if she said squid like creatures came to conquer their world. She stood up and quickly walked away.

"We'll tell the boss!" One of her coworkers told her.

"Thanks!" Cassandra called out as she rushed to her car and began driving back home. She knew she was around twenty minutes from home, but even so she had to fight the urge to speed back home. She had to respect the rules… unless things took a turn for the worse.

Chapter 78: Grouping up

As Cassandra drove back home, she was sweating with anxiety, "Come on. Come on. Come on. You better be home Kaz!"

All around chaos reigned around the city; many people seemed to be running away from something. She slowed down when she saw a few Kha'Rall chasing after some people. Behind them a chieftain showed up and hit them with his mind control attack. Many were hit, going from panicked to calm in seconds.

"Dammit!" She turned onto a short street where there were no M'arrillians.

Luckily, she somehow managed to reach her house. Climbing out she rushed inside, hoping that her son was there. Unfortunately, a purple tendril suddenly grabbed her from behind and pulled her back. She fell to the ground and saw Aval'par readying himself to take control of her mind.

"Look what I found here," Aval'par told her.

Reacting, Cassandra grabbed the pepper spray out of her purse and splashed it on the creature's eyeball.

Aval'par screamed in pain as his eye burned, his eyesight clouded. Pulling back he grunted as he was tackled by something else. The M'arrillian flew away and crashed against some sort of vehicle, triggering some sort of alarm.

Responding to the noise, an old man from next door came out of his house. "What is-" the man began when he saw the purple creature that had crushed his truck. Overwhelmed, he lost consciousness.

"You think we'll let you take the Cothica?" the minotaur asked.

Cassandra immediately recognized the creature, "Rothar?" She stood up and felt a hint of pain from her left ankle. She ignored it though and focused on the situation at hand.

The creature threw fireballs at the M'arrillians, forcing the creature to retreat.

Aval'par crashed into a tree. Disoriented, he shook his head and he flew higher, escaping.

Rothar panted. He grunted in annoyance that the enemy had escaped like that. He turned to the woman and asked, "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah," Cassandra panted loudly. She tried to calm down when her son came back into her mind. She rushed at the door and went inside.

Rothar raised his finger to say something else, but she was already inside. He followed her. He did notice that she was walking at a slow pace, as if she was trying to fight against something. It worried him a little.

"Kaz! Are you here?" Cassandra searched for her son. With Aval'par that close at hand, something might have happened to him. She just hoped that wasn't the case. There was no one in the house. She turned around and approached Rothar, "Do you know where my son is?"

"I don't know. I just know that Agitos went to watch him to make sure he was alright. I came here and made sure you are safe. It was the right decision." Rothar let out a small smirk, as he had another reason why.

"He better be alright or-"

"Mom!" Kaz quickly entered the house.

"Kaz!" She hugged her son with relief when he came.

Agitos followed behind, "We managed to get you home."

The teenager sighed in relief, "Did Rothar try anything?"

"He saved my life from Aval'par…anyway, he knows where we live and will probably come back soon with more M'arrillians," Cassandra paled a little as she tried to think of a way they could leave town.

"Tom said that he's going to his grandparents and suggested we go with him," Kaz suggested.

"Good idea. We need to take as much as we can and leave. Ask them to wait, I don't know where his grandparents live," she replied.

"Me too. It has been a while." Kaz took out his scanner and wrote to his friend to wait a few minutes. They are packing up and joining them.

"Get the clothes and I'll take out the emergency supplies," his mother ordered.

"Yes," Kaz said as he climbed the stairs.

Rothar followed him, a small smirk on his face.

"I'll help you get everything," Agitos told Cassandra.

"Thanks. Come with me," she replied.

The Underworlder followed her to the basement. As they climbed down the stairs Agitos noticed Cassandra had some trouble climbing down the stairs, but chose not to comment; it was not the time. Reaching the bottom of the stairs Cassandra led him to a couple large boxes. Studying them Agitos noted how well packed they seemed. "You were ready for any catastrophe."

"My husband prepared this before he left. One can never know when an emergency will happen, so it pays to be prepared. Anyway… Agitos. Thanks for helping my son." Cassandra let out a kind smile.

"No problem. Chaor ordered me to watch over him." Not wasting a moment, he grabbed everything. It was pretty light. Walking towards the stairs Agitos pointed at her ankle. "You don't seem fine."

"Yeah. When that creature pushed me to the ground, I fell on it wrong. It hurts. I don't know how bad it is," Cassandra explained.

"I'll get this up and then pick you up. You should let this rest," Agitos ordered. Cassandra simply ignored him and followed him upstairs.

"Rothar! Don't you dare touch that!" They heard Kaz yelling.

Agitos wondered what was going on, "I'll check this out." Putting everything down at the foot of the stairs he climbed up.

Once he found them, he saw Rothar holding a pair of female undergarments, "Rothar."

"We need to fill those bags quickly," Rothar replied as he ignored the furious boy, whose face was slowly turning the same color as his hair.

"We don't have time for those petty things. We need to take everything and leave right now! The M'arrillians are likely to come back at any time!" Agitos growled.

"Fine." Rothar grabbed the bag and let the teenager fill the rest.

Once done, they climbed down the stairs.

"We're ready to go mom," Kaz said, glaring at Rothar.

The creatures took everything and went to the car. Seeing the vehicle, the creatures noted how small it was. It made sense given how humans were naturally smaller.

"Kaz," Cassandra started, putting her hands on his shoulder, "My ankle really hurts right now and I won't be able to drive. You have to do it."

"S-sure," Kaz replied, uncertain.

"He was pretty talented during the race," Agitos thought back. He still had trouble believing that Kaz and that portly boy were in the vehicle that won the race. From what he saw, he was the one driving.

"Kaz."

"H-hey. I didn't want to do it and I followed Peyton." the boy waved his hands nervously, "I only took the wheels when we were about to crash."

"We don't have time anyway. I'll talk about this when we are safe," his mother said sternly.

"And video games helped," Kaz whispered.

The creatures didn't know what video meant.

Kaz and Cassandra sat in the front while the creatures had to climb in the back. Rothar struggled to get inside while Agitos had to wait when the woman warned him, "Don't damage it with your spikes."

"H-how?" the blue Underworlder asked. He shook his head, "We don't have time for this anyway! The only way is a big no!" He refused to lay down on Rothar's lap.

The other creature agreed and crossed his arms, "No way!"

"Mom." Kaz agreed with them. This wasn't the time for that.

"S-sorry. I won't be able to afford another car," Cassandra sighed.

Kaz received another message from Tom, "They are ready and waiting for us." He started the engine and took a deep breath, gripping the wheel firmly. He looked around and noted how quiet it was. He knew the M'arrillians had gotten control of people's mind. He also guessed that many had already left. When he had arrived, there were already a few cars missing. Now, most of them were gone. Kaz sighed at the sight.

Focusing on driving, Kaz pulled out of the driveway.

His mother looked back and wondered how long it would be before they would be able to return or if there would be anything left at all when they returned. "You got the pictures?"

"Yeah. Dad's pictures," Kaz replied somberly. He was already starting to miss his home.

The two creatures decided not to intrude on their personal conversation. Agitos knew his spikes were damaging the seat he was sitting in. He sighed. It was obviously made for humans.

Rothar had to lower his head or his horns would be stuck on the hood and he didn't want that. He knew they would mock him for that and he didn't want to piss off Cassandra.

They quickly reached Tom's house. Outside they saw the truck with Arias sitting in the back. Kaz parked near them and opened his window, "Tom!"

Instead of Tom it was his mother who answered. "Kaz! Why are you driving?"

"Annie. Mom hurt her ankle!"

"I was attacked by a creature." Cassandra guessed the woman was in the know given her current company.

"Anyway. We need to leave town right now. The M'arrillians might be after us," Kaz said, closing his window.

Annie pulled out of the driveway and went towards the road leading them outside of the city.

Kaz followed her.

As Tom's mother drove forward. Her son gazed at the state of his town. He saw a few vehicles and people milling around. Everyone was trying to either escape or was acting suspicious. Some of them might actually already be under control as they tried to evacuate. Tom wondered if everything would return to normal one day. He checked his scanner and saw that he had received several messages, but he didn't feel like reading them. His mind couldn't go over what was happening. He didn't want to complain. The creatures had gone through the same thing while his kind was safe. This time, it was the opposite.

"I'm sorry we couldn't stop them, Tom. If only-" Intress began.

"It's okay. There were so many and…" His mind went to what happened to his best friend's code and paled.

"Tom? Sweetie?" Annie asked, concerned.

"S-sorry mom. When I was in Chaotic, I saw Kaz die. His code I mean," Tom quickly added that detail before his mother misunderstood him. He sighed, "But he's fine. He's driving the car."

His mother was quiet as she focused on the road, "You'll explain everything when we are at my parents home Tom."

"I will." He felt a little happy to be able to share that with his mother.

Intress gazed outside. It felt exactly as it did after an assault from the Underworld on a village. She was a bit curious about the Cothica, but refrained from asking anything. Now wasn't the time.

Meanwhile, Kaz drove cautiously behind them. They were respecting the rules for now. It would be worse if a cop was still doing his job and handled the creatures with them. That would be silly, but terrible for them. The boy kept his eyes on the road.

"Chaor will be glad you are alright," Rothar commented.

"W-what do you mean?" Kaz questioned.

Cassandra gulped as she remembered her son being coded. Since she had ported out, she wanted so much to see her boy.

Agitos answered, "You had been killed by Milla'iin. You saved Chaor with your li- code."

"That's what happened?" Kaz paled a little. He knew he was coded during the attack, but not much else. He wanted more details, but that was a matter for later.

Cassandra looked out the window and suddenly yelled, "Kaz! On the left!"

"What?" He stopped when he saw the M'arrillians grouping up and charging towards them. There were a few humans with them.

In the other vehicle, Tom and his mother saw the same thing.

The four creatures prepared to fight for their lives.

AC: This is the end of this chapter.

Next: The Escape.

The four were chased by the creatures. Escape was their only option. If they go down, it's all over.