CHAPTER FOUR

"Players, lock your decks," the computer said quietly. Kristalla and Kevin locked their deck of all locations, no creatures, no battle gear, and no mugic. Kaz and Sarah did the same. "Kid Chaor, since you are the challenged, you will select the first battle. Please activate your location randomizer."

"This should be fun," Kaz grinned. The first location turned out to be a place he knew very well, and everyone nodded in pre-fight anxiety. The four were then surrounded with light, but they did not become creatures like most battlers did. They were then ported to the location.
"Kaz! Over here!" Sarah whispered loudly. Kaz ran over to her quickly and hid behind some crates outside of a store. In perim, people would be everywhere, but in this virtual world, it was just the creatures, in this case players.
"I think you should flood the entire village, then I can use my fire abilities to burn any remaining shelters," Kaz whispered.
"I say we burn all the shelters one by one, then flood the village," Sarah whispered.
"Sure," Kaz whispered. He sent a spark into their current building, which burst into flames quickly. From the other side, they heard a scream as the back deck came crashing down near Kristalla, narrowly missing her and Kevin.
"Listen!" Sarah called to Kaz. Kristalla and Kevin were running away towards the forest. "Set it on fire too!" Kaz sent a spark towards the nearest trees. He thought of consuming the entire area on fire, except for one tall tower. He pulled Sarah onto the steps of the tower as his wish came true. By some mysterious magic, the tower, which was made of wood, did not catch on fire, but everything else did. The next problem was that they were not back at the drome.
"Everything's on fire, so how are they not coded?" Sarah whispered. Kaz looked around the area quickly.
"Look! Those rock formations are not in this location. Flood it. Just think of flooding that area and it'll work," Kaz whispered. Sarah nodded and thought of flooding the rocks. Suddenly, a tirade of water filled the area, but it remained only at the rocks. Then Kevin and Kristalla appeared, swimming through the mess.
"How are they doing this?" Kristalla screamed.
"We're magical," Kevin whispered, looking towards the tower. He thought of using his vine snare to rip it down, so vines grew quickly out of his fingers and wrapped around the base.
"It's Tom!" Sarah exclaimed. "Kaz! Burn the vines!"

"On it," Kaz responded, burning the vines and watching Tom carefully.
"Uh oh, he recognizes me," Tom whispered.
"I told you to lay low!" Kristalla exclaimed.

"Tom, let's run! When they can't see us, we'll be fine."

"Let me just make a rock wall," Tom whispered, making a tall wall of rock form around them. Sarah grinned.
"I'm on it," she grinned. She thought of filling the wall with water and trapping them. Kaz added his own touch by lighting the top of the wall with his flames. Tom and Kristalla were trapped and coded instantly.
"You three are freaks," Kristalla whispered. "Did they give the giant powers too?" she asked. The group nodded. "Great, we're all screwed," Kristalla scoffed.
"Geo Major, please activate your location randomizer," the computer said. Tom activated the randomizer, thinking that maybe Sarah and Kaz were keeping silent about his identity. The location was a swamp area, a place that would be interesting for their powers.
"Let's get Chaotic!" Kaz smiled. Everyone was then ported to the location.
"Kaz, how well can you burn this area?" Sarah asked. Kaz grinned as the two made it to a large rock.
"Let me see," he smiled. He then thought of lighting a fire that covered every area in the location except for the area around where they were standing. The plan worked, but they were still in the location as the heat built up.
"It's too hot for us. We'll die," Sarah coughed over the smoke. She set out a small spray over the two of them to cool them off.
"How do you think they're alive?" Kaz asked. Sarah shrugged.
"Do you want to swim?" Sarah asked. Kaz nodded as Sarah thought of turning the area into a quiet ocean. Water immediately burned away the fire and steam fizzled off the surface. The four were then facing each other on the surface except that Tom and Kristalla were standing.
"What do you want to do?" Kaz asked. Sarah looked around the vast ocean. It quickly disappeared to become a rock bed.

"Rain fire," Sarah whispered. "I'll protect us."

Kaz sent down a shower of fire as Sarah sent water over the two of them, but Tom had his own defense. He surrounded Kristalla and himself with rock, a giant round boulder, and rolled it towards Sarah and Kaz.
"He can't see, but we can!" Kaz screamed to Sarah. Kaz put his full force of fire onto the round trap. The heat inside became so hot that it coded the two almost immediately. Sarah grinned as she chose the next location, a Danian hive.
Inside the numerous deep corridors, Sarah was the only one familiar with the layout. Kaz knew very little, but he was the only one with natural light since he made all of the fire in the hive disappear except for one torch. This scared Kristalla, who had been in a battle with this location once and relied heavily on the evenly spaced torches.
"If we get to the top, we can send fire through the air vents," Sarah smiled, making good ground towards the top, but Tom had a different plan. He sealed off and entrances and exits with solid rock.
"How can we get out of this?" Kaz whispered, checking the thickness of the wall with another rock. The seal was solid.
"Water erodes rock quickly, but it would build up in here and drown us," Sarah tried.
"Unless we use this hole in the floor to are advantage," Kaz grinned. "If the water builds in it, I can create steam from it. It'll be hot, but at least we won't drown." So Sarah sent a powerful blast at the small crack between the wall and the blockade. Kaz boiled away any water in the hole in the floor, and the area remained relatively clear.
During this time, Tom and Kristalla found their way to the top of the hive. Kristalla then watched as Tom filled the entire area with rock. When he was finished, they were still standing above the hive. Sarah had made a hole at the original blockade large enough for her and Kaz both, but the air supply was still there.
"Why aren't they coded?" Kristalla exclaimed.
"Maybe Sarah got him out. Remember, she's like the Danian know-it-all of all Chaotic players. She could easily find her way up, and with Kaz's light, they could see better than us. They must be up here somewhere," Tom whispered. The two then began walking around the main entrance of the hive.
Sarah and Kaz were looking at a delicate situation. Kaz refused to light a fire because fire needs air to live, as they do also. Sarah could not use her water power again because they had no way to burn it off.

"Kaz, we're screwed. Maybe we should just code ourselves and get it over with," Sarah whispered.

"No, we have to figure out how our powers match up together. You water has force, as does my fire, but we're weak without air because we need air to survive, as does fire. Earth is the most powerful of all because the power can manipulate anything, like this hive. But water is just as powerful because you can destroy the earth with proper means and fire. Wind is strong too because it can move anything and put out fire. With all of us separated…, we're screwed. Okay, drown us," Kaz whispered sadly.

"Wait! Fill this space with water as hard as you can and bust a hole through the earth Tom created. Surely you can do that, and it is our last hope."

"Okay, here it goes," Sarah whispered. She then sent a tsunami towards the surface through the rock. When it was over, she and Kaz were looking at their board again. Tom and Kristalla were standing directly over the exit and were coded when they hit the ground.
When everyone was back, Kristalla looked over them all quietly. Sarah looked to Kaz.
"Confront him," she whispered. Kaz nodded.
"Um, Kevin? Where did you get your powers?" Kaz asked. Kevin sighed and looked to Kristalla.
"Tell them, tell both of them," she whispered angrily. She never thought about her enemies having superhuman abilities before, and she didn't want to start.
"It's me," Tom whispered. "I wanted to lay low, but that's impossible with her around, no offense. It looks like we function better together though. Do you want to do another match with Peyton and me to see how it goes?"

"Of course," Sarah replied. "Why did you lie to us? We were worried about you."

"I remembered being angry, and I thought that coming back could be problems. Oh, we still have our abilities in the real world, so Kristalla kind of had to rescue me from a new cave system. Klay isn't coming back, and she wanted to have me here with her so that she'd have something to do," Tom explained. Kaz and Sarah nodded.
"Well, we can do another two-on-two as soon as Peyton gets back. Kristalla, you get to be our manager, but no dirty work or black mailing. Tell the people the truth: we're practicing to save Chaotic from another force," Sarah said quickly. Sarah nodded as the computer announced the winners, Kaz and Sarah. When the group disbursed out of the drome, people were everywhere. Online viewers thought that the powers could happen to anyone so they had showed up to see, and Peyton was among one of the most enthusiastic.
"We can do all that?" he exclaimed. Kristalla led the crowd away from the four and they sat down to talk.
"It looks like we boosted the numbers," Sarah whispered. Peyton nodded.
"Two of the dromes are opening again, and people are already challenging each other," Peyton grinned. "Chaotic is coming back to life!"

"But we haven't solved the real problem," Tom whispered. "Peyton, we're doing another match, and we're going to see what we can do together. Then, we try to find Raven to see where the demon is so that we can fight him once and for all."

"Agreed. Peyton, you're with Tom. Kaz, you're back with me," Sarah commanded. The four then returned to the drome. They beckoned Kristalla over, who grinned darkly.
"They want that other match. What else do I need to do?" Kristalla smirked. Sarah pulled out her scanner and showed her the pictures she had of Raven, in both of her 'forms.'"
"Find her and tell her to meet us here," Sarah whispered. "We need her to save Chaotic."

"From what? Could you let me in on everything?" Kristalla asked. Tom glanced to the group.
"No," he whispered. "Sorry, but this is a problem that only a select few need to know about, but understand that we respectively are leaving everyone out of it. If they knew, we might cause a panic that could signal the writers that something is truly wrong, then Chaotic may perish sooner than we expected. Just…keep things quiet, and keep everyone here. We might need the numbers later."

"Agreed," Kristalla whispered. She then looked to the crowd. "Go into the drome and I'll get them pumped up."

Tom, Kaz, Peyton, and Sarah snuck into the drome just as Kristalla stood on a table to address the group. Just as the group entered the drome, power flickered and screens were reduced to snow. Silence filled the area as Peyton was forced to use his powers to open the door. As soon as he did, a strange figure entered the area. Chaos reigned the area, leaving just Kristalla and the group standing before this strange person.
"Hello there. I hear that you're looking for a battle. Here I am," the figure smirked, speaking with a distorted voice and lighting an energy ball in his hand. The group would have to fight with close to no practice, at least with each other.