I awoke, tasting blood on my mouth. I sat up, coughing. Small splatters of blood flew from my mouth, staining the already bloodstained rocky floor. Looking around, I appeared to be in a small cell, surrounded by rock walls. Except for me and the bloodstains, the small area was empty. A metal gate stood in front of me, lodged deep in the ground.

Frantic, I searched my person, but aside from a few rips in the clothing, I had nothing. My knife and pokeballs were gone. Standing, I peered through the rusty metal gate, seeing a cave tunnel outside, going both left and right.

I shook on the gate, slightly rattling. "Hey! Anyone there!? Hello!"

"H-hello?"

I strained my eyes to the right, but only managed to see a hint of another gate. "Yes. Who's there?"

"Uh," the voice trembled slightly. A girl's. "Mira."

"I'm Zeno," I said. "Are you a prisoner too?"

"Yeah," her voice was quiet and petite. She must be a child.

"I need to know," my hands gripped the gate harder. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," her scared voice replied. "I remember going to bed, then waking up here."

Something clanged to my left and my eyes darted in that direction. Two figures were walking down the tunnel, dressed in dark purple robes, hoods covering their faces.

As they seemingly glided by, I shook on the gates. "Hey! Let us out of here!"

They stopped, both turning towards me.

"Silence," one rasped. "The sacrifice will be silent."

"Ordered," said the other. "Ordered to keep you contained."

They turned away and continued walking down the tunnel.

"Hey!" I shouted after them. "Who are you!? What do you want from us!?"

No answer. Ten seconds after they were out of sight, I heard the sound of another gate closing shut.

"Damn," I pressed my hand to my forehead. I had no idea where I was, nor did I know where Alex, Robert, or Clara were. I was in this unknown situation, with no idea what to do.

"No," I thought. "I've been in worse situations before. I can get out of this one too."

"What are you doing?" the girl asked timidly.

I felt the gate, sliding my hands down to where they entered the ground. "Give me a minute."

I wrapped my fingers around the thin metal and tried to heave it upward, with only a slight rattle awarded to me. At least I was getting somewhere.

Wrapping my fingers tighter around the metal, I gritted my teeth and tried to lift the gate. It slowly lifted an inch, but I couldn't move any further. The gate bit into my fingers blood slowly dripping from my fingers.

"AAAACK!" I fell backwards, letting the gate drop back down with a clang. Blood ran down my fingers, but I barely felt the pain.

"You okay?" The girl asked.

I let out a deep sigh, clenching and unclenching my fingers. "Mostly. It seems there's no way for us to get out of here without help."

"Oh," she went quiet. Then, after several minutes of silence, "Lunatone!"

I sat up from where I had laid down. Coming out of the rock wall outside both of our wall was a Lunatone. It seemed to simply separate itself from the rocks, as if it was part of the wall.

"Lunatone," the girl gasped. "Can you free us!? Please!?"

Lunatone made a low, humming sort of sound, its eyes glowing pink. With loud clangs, my gate and the girl's flew forwards, slamming into the wall near Lunatone, dust flying into the air. I got up, slowly walking out. When the dust settled, the girl was hugging the Lunatone. She wore a white dress with small frills on the bottom, her straight black hair going down just past her shoulders. She looked to be 8, or 9.

"This is your Pokemon?" I asked.

She nodded. "Me and Lunatone have been together for as long as I can remember. She had disappeared when I was taken. I was so worried."

Lunatone glowed with a pink aura as Mira hugged the Rock type tightly. It seemed content, happy.

"Okay," I looked around, making sure no one was coming from either direction. "We need to get out of here, but first we need to find everyone else who was taken."

Mira nodded, then Lunatone began drifting down the tunnel to the right, where the robed figures had disappeared down. At the end of the tunnel was another gate, a lever next to it.

"He says to follow him," Mira said, hurrying after her Pokemon.

Looking back behind us to just see the tunnel go on as far as the eye could see, flaming torches casting long shadows, I figured it was best to trust the Pokemon. I moved past Mira and hefted the lever upwards, the metal gate clanking as it was brought up. I entered a small chamber, with another tunnel across from me.

I held out my hand to stop Mira. "Don't come in and don't look."

"But," Mira said, but Lunatone had moved to block her view.

I went in a bit further and knelt by the drawing on the ground. A circle with a dozen arrows shooting out in all directions. Each one was a different size and the way they were arranged had no particular pattern to them. But two things stood out. The way the drawing looked like it had been painted with blood and the severed arm lying on its side off in the corner of the round chamber.

"What is this!?" I clenched a fist, thankfully not recognizing the arm. "What in the hell is this!?"

"I'm so glad you asked, Zeno."

I spun around to see a cloaked figure behind Mira. He had grabbed her, a jagged knife pressed to her throat. Lunatone seemed surprised and made to attack, but the man made a bead of blood appear on the girl's throat, her eyes wide in fright.

"Stop, Lunatone," I said, trying to keep myself in control. I couldn't do anything to anger this person, not when he had a hostage. "What do you want?"

"What do we want?" he pushed back his hood with his free hand, revealing short brown hair. He was the same guy from the Pokemon Center, the one with the Lampent. Bradley. "We want you and this girl to be our sacrifices."

I felt a slight rush of wind. I looked around. People in purple cloaks were now lined along the circular wall, blocking the tunnel. I couldn't see a single face since they were hidden in shadows. A dozen Lampents floated around the room, casting a ghostly aura around us.

"Who are you people?" I asked, wishing I had Arcanine with me, or my knife.

"We are the people of the All-Powerful One," he said, raising his free hand dramatically. "We are the chosen few who do her bidding! We will be the ones who will help her rise once more! We are hers! We are the Cult of Chaos!"

"We are the Cult of Chaos."

All the cloaked figures began chanting those words and a symbol glowed atop their hoods. The same symbol that was drawn on the floor.

"Chaos," I muttered, remembering the chilling words imparted to me in a dream. "I look forward to when we meet on the fields of chaos." And the dream I had of Chaos speaking to me back in my house. "I am the embodiment of Chaos."

"Of course," the guy waved his hand. "We can't sacrifice you yet, Zeno. It's not time yet. But this girl, her blood will be the first Chaos shall taste."

"Don't you dare," anger rose up within me as I clenched my fists. "Don't you dare hurt her!"

Tears were running down Mira's cheeks. Lunatone glowed brighter, but couldn't do anything. The cultist grinned maniacally. "Oh, that anger. It is good, truly good. You will be the perfect sacrifice indeed. But not yet, not yet. Now's not the time."

His eyes seemed to be only filled with glee and chaos. "Now, let the first sacrifice off her virgin body to the All-Powerful One. Let her pureness fuel the chaos!"

"NO!" I yelled, lunging forwards. A slicing sound shot through the air, blood splattering across the me and the ground, the symbol of Chaos glowing a sickly purple upon the floor.

...

Clara gripped the gate tightly. "Let us out you bastards! I know you can hear me! Let us the hell out!"

"That's not gonna help," Alex sighed from her corner.

"I don't see you doing anything smart ass," Clara growled. "Unlike you, I want to get out of here! I want my Pokemon back!"

"We all do," Robert said from his corner. "It's pointless to yell though."

"Screw you," Clara said angrily, then turned back to the gate. "I said come out you cowards! You bast-!"

A clanking sound could be heard before two figures stepped into view, wearing purple cloaks.

Clara grinned. "Perfect. Now, let me out of here so I can kick both of your asses."

The gate rose and Alex and Robert shot to their feet. Before any of them could react, both cloaked figures had grabbed Clara by the arms and began dragging her off.

"Hey!" She yelled, flailing about, but to no avail. "Let go of me now!"

The gate slammed down before Alex or Robert could try to escape and Clara's voice faded away into the distance.

...

"Be our entertainment for the night," one of the men said, laughing as he pushed Clara through an opening, a gate slamming down behind her. She growled at them before looking at her surroundings. She was in a large cavern that was shaped like a Colosseum of sorts. High circular walls around her with areas to sit above, flaming torches everywhere. Hundreds of cloaked figures sat on the carved stone, staring at her, as dozens of Lampents hovered around them. Clara flipped them the finger.

On the opposite side of the arena, a gate lifted and the punk guy from the Pokemon Center was pushed through. A cloaked figure stood amongst his brethren, raising both hands, his voice echoeing across the cavern.

"You two have been chosen to be sacrifices to the All-Powerful One. Duel to the death and the survivor will be spared!"

He tossed something into the middle of the arena. A knife. The punk guy began eyeing it dangerously. Clara narrowed her eyes, determined not to be entertainment for these freaks.

"Begin!"

Clara had no choice but to dart for the knife as the Punk guy did. Whoever got to the knife first would have the advantage and she wasn't willing to pass that up.

...

I sank to my knees, holding Mira close to my body while the cultist shrieked with laughter. "Oh, she was good indeed! Her blood will fuel Chaos' rise!"

I lowered her body and rose, Lunatone hovering next to me, glowing a dangerous red. I raised my gaze to stare at the cultist. "You're gonna pay for what you just did. Lunatone, will you help me?"

He hummed with power and I nodded. "Then let's take them down."

Hey. I'm back. It's been two weeks. School started, so I barely found time to write this. Heck, I already have two projects to work on for HBiology and Health. However, I am enjoying school very much. I love my classes (Except for Language Arts. Teacher sucks. Health too I guess, since it's boring), especially Chemistry. Man its fun to see explosions. Anyway, next chapter won't come out for another week at least. If I can get a chapter of TMR out this weekend, that would be awesome. If not, LDOC might get pushed back to two weeks. I hope you all enjoyed this twisted chapter and I look forward to your comments. Toodles