A/N: Fixed an error or two that someone pointed out to me with this chapter. Nothing else new. :)

Chaos Unleashed: Chapter Nine

Kathryn's POV

"Rise and shine!" I shouted, yanking my curtains open and letting the bright sunlight of an early June morning flood my bedroom.

Immediately, I heard the groans of the two hobbits who'd been curled up in their makeshift beds fast asleep. "...What are you doing?" Frodo mumbled.

"Come on!" I said, moving over and nudging the two lumps with my foot. "Get up! We've got stuff to do today!"

Frodo's dark mop of curly hair finally shifted and rose as he sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Like what?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out," I said, wiggling my eyebrows in a semi-seductive way. Frodo rolled his eyes.

"Why's today so special, then?" Sam asked, also slowly starting to wake up.

"Because it's your two-week anniversary on Earth!" I said. "We've gotta celebrate somehow, right?"

Frodo sighed, standing up and stretching. "I'd be content with celebrating by sitting downstairs with some of that lemonade you always make and several new pages of Homestuck to read, honestly."

I laughed. "So would I, but Erin, Kaia and I all agreed that we should do something special. So hurry up and get dressed! Everyone else is already up. We'll be downstairs in the kitchen eating." With that, I left the hobbits to do their thing and quickly ran downstairs.

Once I got to the kitchen, I said hi to everybody and made a beeline for the fridge to grab my half-finished glass of apple juice before jumping up on the counter to sit. Boromir, Aragorn, Legolas, Merry, and Pippin were all gathered around the dining table, whether they were sitting or standing. Kaia stood behind me at the coffee maker, waiting for it to finish up. "Frodo and Sam are up now," I said. "And they both shower at night, so they shouldn't be long." I looked around to see who was missing. "Where's Gimli and Erin?"

"Gimli's in the shower upstairs...ah, the other upstairs," Merry answered, jabbing a thumb towards the other half of our house.

"And Erin is still in her room," Legolas said as well. "I do not know what exactly she is doing, but she refused to let me back inside."

Kaia laughed quietly from behind me, and I smirked. "Don't worry, we know exactly what she's doing."

"She'd better not take forever, though," my best friend said as she poured a fresh cup of coffee for herself, then another one which was handed over the counter to Aragorn. "We gotta go soon, don't we?"

I checked the time on my iPod. "Yeah. It's almost nine."

Kaia nodded and set her coffee down before running out of the kitchen. "I'll go get her!" Once she disappeared, I took a quick sip of her coffee.

"So...where are we going?" Pippin asked. "You said you were gatherin' us here for something."

I nodded. "Yep!" At that moment, Gimli walked in, and I nodded to him before continuing. "Since you guys have been here on Earth with us for a whole two weeks now, we figured it was time we all go out and do something awesome."

"And what is it that we're doing, Kathryn?" Boromir asked.

I grinned. "I can't tell you. Not until we get there, at least. I mean, we've got a lot of stuff planned for today, but..." Frodo and Sam appeared right as I finished talking, and I smiled. "Hey guys. What do you want to eat? Cereal?"

Sam nodded. "And one of those leftover hash browns from yesterday, if you don't mind."

I nodded and went back to the fridge to grab one. The Fellowship had gotten settled in and adjusted to our weird Earth customs fairly easily over the past fourteen days, and I for one was having an awesome time living with them. Several of the guys had picked up an interest in video games, and I'd even managed to coax Frodo into watching a bunch of my favorite animes. We'd also gotten Merry hooked on Tumblr, and Gimli had come to like watching people like Smosh and PewDiePie on YouTube (though that one was all Erin's doing). Aragorn had somehow gotten incredibly good at Assassin's Creed over the past several days, and every now and then he and Boromir would turn on the Xbox for a game of Resident Evil or Black Ops. Merry and I had watched Star Wars together once, too, and he was a fan of that now. It was awesome. I'd never imagined that some of them would get so into our weird modern-day forms of entertainment, but they had.

Finally, Kaia returned to our kitchen as Frodo and Sam finished eating, dragging Erin along behind her. I caught my friend's attention. "Is it ready?"

Erin nodded with a wink. "Yep. It's ready."

I returned the wink dramatically. "Good." She laughed. "Then are we ready to go? We've gotta be at the surprise place in half an hour."

Everyone nodded, and Kaia grinned. "Great! Grab anything you think you'll need and get out to a car!" With that, everyone dispersed to go slip on some shoes or put away dishes or whatever. I ran back up to my room one last time to grab my headphones, then stopped when I realized I wouldn't even need my iPod. I set it down on my dresser and sped back downstairs, locking the front door behind me as I left the house and made sure everyone was out. I hopped into my car with Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, and Legolas, then started the engine and slowly backed out of our driveway.

After a moment of silence, Legolas spoke up. "So you really can not tell us anything about where it is we are going?"

I smirked and shook my head. "Nope. Not one little detail." I glanced around my car to see what they were wearing. Hmm. Frodo's gonna be spotted too easily in that white shirt. Sam's okay...brown is a dark color. Leggles is in grey, so he's good...Aragorn's not in anything too bright...though I doubt he'll be able to hide the design on his shirt under a black light. Oh well. His chest'll be covered anyway. I laughed a little at the bewildered looks on their faces when they saw how I was checking them out. Maybe we should've warned them to dress dark. Oh well.

oOo

Erin's POV

I laughed even harder as someone's heel accidentally slipped and jabbed me in the stomach. "Hey! Watch it up there!"

Boromir scoffed. "You have no right to talk! This was your insane idea!"

I just rolled my eyes, though I knew he couldn't see it. "Well it was either this or we wait another hour for me to find another ride. Which would you pick?"

"How about you just get your license, Erin?" Kaia yelled back at me from the driver's seat.

"And drive what car?" I shot back, but I knew she was only kidding around. Since there were six of us leftover after Kathryn loaded her car up and room for only five in Kaia's car, I became a problem-solver and chose to lay on the floor of the car in the back, then have Merry, Pippin, and Boromir climb in over top of me and prop their feet up slightly against the back of the seats so they wouldn't crush me. It was the best way to avoid getting pulled over by a cop for having too many people in the car, in my opinion.

Suddenly, I heard Gimli laugh from where he sat up front with Kaia. "Ahh, I love this song!" The music got a bit louder afterwards, and I could only assume that he'd been the one to turn it up.

"Yeah, man!" Kaia agreed. "We As Human's awesome!"

I grinned from where I lay, staring up at nothing but three pairs of legs, and sang along with my friend to the second verse of "Dead Man." "Gimli, I'm proud of you," I said as I caught a glimpse of him headbanging. Who knew a dwarf would be so into rock? "We've raised you well in these last two weeks."

"I prefer the other band you showed me once," Boromir cut in. "RED, was it?"

My grin widened. "Yes! They're my absolute favorite!"

I heard Kaia laugh from up front, and suddenly the intro to their song "Release the Panic" started playing. "Speaking of RED..."

"NO!" I shouted. "Don't do this to me! I can't sing while I'm laying on the floor!"

"Guess you'll just have to be tortured by listening to them, then."

"Listening to Mike Barnes is never torture and you know it."

"Touché."

As the drum solo introduction ended and the heavy riffs of the guitars blasted through the speakers, Merry spoke. "Can't say it's my favorite, but it's better than those other guys you made us listen to after we lost that bet last week."

"Who, One Direction?" Pippin asked.

"Pippin!" Kaia shouted. "No foul language in my fucking car!"

I lost it then and started laughing like an idiot, only to stop when someone accidentally kicked me in the ribs as we went over a bump in the road. "Ow!"

"Sorry!" Merry cried. "But yes, Pip. They were awful."

"That's the spirit!" I replied. "I'm just glad that none of you actually like them."

"If you ask me, their shorts are a bit too short for their own good," the blonde hobbit said.

I smiled. "Don't worry. They're practically a thing of the past now. I just like bringing them up every now and again to use as a torture device. Though I don't understand how people like Justin Beiber have still managed to hang on to fame for this long. Even after all these years, he's still popular."

Kaia retched. "Oh, God. You guys are making me sick with that kind of talk." The first RED song ended, and she skipped over "Perfect Life" to let "Die For You" play instead.

"Didn't you say he just came out with a new album, too?" Boromir said.

"Sadly, yes," I answered with a shudder. "I swear, one of these days his fans are all gonna snap and end up in a psych ward."

"If they're not there already," Kaia pointed out.

We went over another bump, and I yelped as Merry narrowly missed kicking me in the eye. "Are we there yet, Kaia? This might not have been as good of a plan as I thought."

"Yeah," she said. "I just pulled into the parking lot, actually. Kathryn beat us here." A minute later, the music clicked off, along with the engine, and before I knew it the guys above me had scrambled out of the back seat, leaving me to pull myself out. I flipped over onto my stomach and crawled out onto the pavement, hopping back to my feet and dusting myself off as someone approached me.

Looking up, I saw my favorite elf shooting me a quizzical look. "What? You gotta do what you gotta do."

He laughed. "Thank the Valar I was not in that car with you."

"Hey, shut it!" I said, smacking him lightly. "You'd better watch what you say to me, or I'll put you in the hallway for the night." We both laughed and followed everyone else into the building up ahead.

It was Frodo who first noticed the sign on the door. "Girls? What is 'laser tag?'"

The grin on my face widened even more. "Oh, it's awesome. It's this really fun game where you get to run around a big arena shooting people with lasers to get points, and whichever team gets the most points wins. It's also the reason why I'm dressed like a ninja today." I looked myself over with pride. Black t-shirt, black skinny jeans, black Converse. I was prepared.

"But what is a laser?" Aragorn asked, confused.

"It'll all be explained to you once we get in," Kathryn reassured him. "Now come on. Follow Kaia." We all filed into the dark room ahead and sat down in the mini-theater, facing the screen.

I stuck with Legolas and poked him in the ribs once we were seated. "Hey." I whispered. "Elves are supposed to be really agile, right?"

"I suppose so. Why?"

"Cause I want agile people on my team, that's why." I ignored his confused look and focused on the employee who walked in and started coaching us on how to play. She ran a video that explained the rules, we got to ask a couple questions, and then it was time to choose teams. I ran right up to the red team's side and grabbed a vest to slide over my head. When Boromir came over to pick one up, I stopped him. "Sorry, only awesome people can be on my team."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that a challenge?"

"If you want it to be," I said with a smirk.

"You should know that I picked up on those rules rather well," he warned.

"That's fine. I'm still gonna show you who's boss out there."

He nodded once. "Very well. You're on."

"Watch your back, Gondorian." I watched as he turned and walked over to the blue team, along with Aragorn, then frowned as I turned to the faithful elf who stood beside me. "Oh, frick. They've got both the men on their team. I feel like Aragorn's gonna be really good at this."

Legolas shrugged. "Well, we have both you and Kaia. Are you not rather experienced with this?"

"I've played enough times to know what I'm doing," I said. "Kaia's pretty good, so...that's a plus. But Kathryn's played more than I have, and she's on the other team." As it stood, the blue team consisted of Kathryn, Boromir, Aragorn, Frodo, Gimli, and Pippin. On the red team was me, Kaia, Merry, Legolas, and Sam. They had an extra person, but that didn't matter much to me. I caught Kathryn's eye from across the small room. "Are we ready to go?"

She nodded, then yelled to get everyone's attention. "Hey! Ok, you guys remember the basics, right? Hold up the gun and press the trigger to shoot. Hit people on the chest and shoulders that are on the opposite team. Go anywhere you want, but try and make it to the other team's base and hit that to get the most points!" Everyone nodded in understanding. "Go!"

Immediately, I took off and ran right out into the dark arena, heading for the stairs that led to the upper levels of the 3-floor arena. I found a spot in the corner that was partially shielded by a large wall with holes in it here and there and crouched down on the floor, looking around as I saw others take their places. I heard the referee shout out a countdown from below, and as soon as some crazy dubstep song started playing as background music and all the black lights went up, it was game on.

My strategy for the game was rather simple to start out. I stayed hidden where I was for the first few minutes, peeking out and shooting people whenever I saw the blue team pass by. It was pretty easy to hit the Fellowship, as they were mostly running around in circles, blindly trying to find their way through the confusing area, but eventually I was found out when I was able to get three hits on Boromir in a row. The Gondorian spun around just in time to see me try and duck, but I knew it was too late when I heard the pounding of his feet. He was coming for me.

I quickly readied my gun and jumped to my feet, kicking it into high gear as I narrowly missed colliding with him once I ran out from behind the wall. From there it was an all-out sprint as I started weaving through pillars in an attempt to lose him. It worked, because after a couple seconds I ducked behind a pillar to catch my breath, then peered out, seeing no sign of him anywhere.

I noticed that I was nearby where the blue team's base was located on the first floor, and slowly snuck over to where I could see the person they'd posted to be their lookout, Frodo, from above. I crouched down to where he couldn't see me for a moment, then jumped up and shot him repeatedly. He looked around wildly, but not up to see where his attacker was coming from, so I was safe. I slipped down a ramp and repeated the process on the second level, and then took a risky move by running down to the first level and right up to their base, getting in three good hits on their base before he shot me and I had to run.

After awhile, the first round ended, with our team being the victors. I laughed as I made my way back to our team's base, meeting up with everyone else. "That was good," I said. "Round 2?"

Kaia nodded. "We're signed up for three rounds, so yeah." We all quickly spread out once more, and I ran to a different hiding point on the first floor for the beginning of the next round.

After the first two minutes or so, I managed to get in a heated chase around the area with Boromir again, only this time I was the one chasing him. He managed to turn around and zap me once or twice, but he had a hard time losing me. I only stopped when I was completely out of breath, deciding to duck behind a collection of four pillars that arced out from the wall.

Since I still had lots of momentum from my run, I crashed right into the person hiding out behind the pillars and ended up falling right on my butt. "Oh frick! I'm sorry!" I looked up to make sure I hadn't run right into an enemy, and was relieved to see Legolas standing there, offering a hand to help me up. "Thanks," I said breathlessly.

He nodded. "Not a problem." We stood there in silence for a minute, scoping out the territory around us by peeking through the cracks between the pillars. At one point I glanced over my shoulder and was incredibly thankful for the darkness, because in daylight it would've been easy to see how much I blushed as I saw how close we were. He was sort of leaning right over me, to the point where I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. "What's your plan?"

I blinked, coming out of my momentary shock when he spoke. "Uh, I...I don't know. I'm probably gonna run to go take some people out in a minute."

"All right. I will cover you."

Now I looked back at him again. "Really?"

"Of course. You run, hit as many of the other team as you can, and I will watch for those who try to hit you."

I thought about that. "...Okay. Let's do it. I'm aiming for Boromir, personally. Is he out there?"

Legolas looked out, then turned back to me and nodded. "Yes. He is over to your left, past the next two sets of pillars."

I grinned. He was going down. "Awesome. Let's go!" Together we snuck out of our hiding spot, and I worked my way over to where Legolas said he was hiding. The look on Boromir's face once he spun around to see me shooting him repeatedly was hilarious. "SURPRISE!" I laughed as he took off running, giving chase once again as Legolas stayed with me. This time, though, I lost Boromir quicker than I expected, and frowned as I slowed to a walk. Where'd he go?

Out of nowhere, the man jumped out at me from behind a wall, laughing like a madman as he shot me repeatedly. I tried to back up, but just bumped into Legolas again. "You're done for!"
FRICK! I walked right into that! "Legolas, GO!" I shouted, turning and booking it out of there, but I wasn't fast enough. He hit me way too many times.

A round and a half later, my team was gathered back at our base after the final round was over, and everyone was totally out of breath. We'd all gotten to look at each other's total scores, and the overall dominators had been Aragorn, Legolas, and Kathryn. The blue team had won two out of the three rounds, winning the match overall. It had been incredibly fun, though (despite how gross and sweaty we all were).

As I climbed back onto the floor of Kaia's car, I sighed. "That was awesome, you guys."

The others agreed with me as we all got buckled in and ready to go. "We should definitely do that again some other time," Merry said.

"I still don't understand how I didn't get hardly any points compared to you all," Pippin pouted.

"Because you never hit where you were supposed to on the base, Pip!" his blonde cousin laughed. "You were shooting everywhere possible but the target."

"Oh, shut it!"

I laughed. "Hey, you did good for your first time playing laser tag. I was worse than you once I started."

"And apparently you still aren't any good," Boromir said cockily, "seeing as I beat you on my first time."

"Hey!" I snapped. "That wouldn't have happened if you hadn't completely ambushed me at the end there! Like half of your fricking team ganged up on me!"

He scoffed. "Well, you had the elf and your bodyguard for half of the game!"
"I did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"
"Fuck you both, I kicked ass in that game!" Kaia cut in. We all laughed as she started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.