Finally, the first unofficial part of Chaos! I apologize for the wait, and apologize for the delay (even though they're technically the same thing) Well, here it is, the tenth installment of the Cracker Chronicles - not counting CC#9.5, of course - and I highly suggest going back and rereading the old chronicles if they're not fresh in your mind. This one has a lot of references to them...

+===+

December 31st, 2026.
Scott’s house.
Scott stared excitedly at the computer screen. His grin steadily grew as the video he was watching neared the end.
Nick walked in and gasped. Scott cried out in surprise and covered the computer screen, screaming, “Don’t you knock?”
Nick flicked on the lights and Scott hissed and covered his eyes with one arm. Nick sighed scornfully, “Honestly, Scott, you need a hobby.”
Scott growled, “Look away while I get my pants.”
Nick turned around while Scott pulled up his pants, “It’s not like I haven’t seen you indecent before, Scott. Not that any of those twenty-seven occasions were happy for me either.”
Scott frowned, “Twenty-seven?”
“In the last year alone.”
Scott groaned, “Well, I’m sorry I haven’t had a girlfriend in a while, unlike you...”
Nick narrowed his eyes, “I seem to remember that you’ve had human females around your house for certain...gratification purposes, up until about this time last year...” his face twitched into a grin, “You Casanova.”
Scott turned away, “I don’t know what you’re talking about...I’ve had plenty of relationships in the past year...”
“No, you’ve been to plenty of adult clubs in the past year, but apparently that’s not enough, since I’ve walked in on you abusing yourself...again.” He raised an eyebrow, “You haven’t had a relationship since you met Venus.”
Scott leaped to his feet, “Untrue!”
Nick raised an eyebrow expectantly.
Scott bit his lip, “Well...”
Nick raised his eyebrow higher.
Scott’s eyes flitted around the room searchingly. He sighed, “Fine. I haven’t. But that doesn’t mean anything.”
Nick laughed, “Scott, I’m an expert in human and elf psychology. A year ago my sister brutally rejected you-”
“She just turned me down!”
Nick smiled, “And you haven’t gotten over it. You’re trying to replace the need for a lasting relationship that you obviously wanted out of Venus,” he paused, expecting some sort of reaction. Not getting one, he continued, “Which you obviously didn’t get. You’re replacing it with non-committed relationship types, like clubs and...” he gestured to the computer, “...that, but stopping short of prostitutes.” He winked, “If Venus can’t have you, no one can, am I right?”
Scott growled threateningly, “You couldn’t be more wrong!”
“Then what is it?”
Scott was breathing heavily. He looked to the floor, “I don’t know. Humans are great and all, but none are like Venus...”
Nick smiled and opened his mouth, but stopped short when he heard a small beeping sound. They blinked and spun around, bewildered. Their eyes finally settled on a small table with a potted plant on top. Nick furrowed his brow and pulled open the tiny drawer. A disk-shaped object pulsated inside, beeping softly.
Scott pulled it out and looked at it bemusedly, “What the heck is this?”
Nick pulled an identical copy from his pocket. On both of them, the white top pulsated a light blue. He turned it over and looked at the silver bottom, “Ah, I remember what this is. This is the Nc Council acceptance disk that I received on my three billion, four hundred millionth birthday.”
Scott narrowed his eyes, “Nc Council?”
Nick nodded, “You know everyone that participated in the Nc Tournament?”
Scott counted on his fingers, “The Nefarious Thirteen, the Original Six, their twins...”
“And Nc himself,” Nick pointed out. “Those people are the members of the Nc Council. They are Nc’s innermost circle-”
“You mean like people he asks to help him if he can’t do something on his own?”
Nick’s mouth fell open, “Y-yes.”
“So, they just discuss Nc’s problems?”
Nick rubbed his chin, “Well, you know, elves aren’t a very cooperative species. As far as I know, there’s only been one or two in the last millennium.”
“So why one now?”
Nick shrugged, “Hell if I know. This writing on the back describes the situation defined by the color. Red is an emergency, and should be responded to immediately. Green is for discussing a non-critical situation that would help elves-”
“Like the government discussing building a public highway?”
Nick frowned, “Yes, exactly.”
Scott looked at his disk, “And what about blue?”
Nick read the Elvin script, “Blue means to get to the designated point of meeting as soon as possible, but there’s no rush.”
Scott thought for a moment, amused, “I bet it has something to do with us.”
Nick frowned, “What do you mean?”
Scott thought of something that distracted him from this subject, “W-why are you even here?”
Nick cleared his throat, “I was asking around...do you have twenty pounds of diamonds I can borrow?”
Scott made a face, “No! I don’t! No one does! What the-”
Nick turned and smashed the flowerpot on the desk. Several, large crystals spilled out, instead of dirt and flower parts. Nick turned back to Scott, a questioning look on his face, “If these aren’t yours, like you say, then I’ll be taking these.”
Scott started to object, but thought better of it. He sighed, “Fine, let’s get to the ‘designated point’. Which would be...”
Nick pressed the white top of the disk and the blue pulse shot up, showing a hologram of a desolate blue star. The hologram zoomed in on a large, expansive building, spread out over miles on the star’s surface.
Nick smiled malevolently, “It’s Nc’s home: Polaris.”

+===+

December 31st, 2026.
Nick’s house.
They entered Nick’s home, and Nick gestured to his fireplace, “I’m sure you have guessed our method of travel?”
Scott widened his eyes and shook his head slowly, “Oh, no, not again!”
Nick grinned slightly at his panicked expression and continued to explain, “We drop through the fireplace into the spacecraft, which then shoots itself, with us inside it, through the center of the Earth, gradually gaining enough momentum to escape the atmosphere, and from there we travel to Polaris. Simple enough.”
Scott pleaded, “But I don’t want to travel through space! Can’t we just teleport-”
Nick grabbed his arm and dragged him into the chimney, “Nope! That would be doing it the boring way!” They fell through the floor and landed inside a small craft. Lights flickered on and there was a lurch as they began to drop, much like an elevator. Out the window they saw the brown dirt zooming past, steadily reddening into boiling rock, and then back to the dull brown. There was a small jerk and they were in water; another, and they were in the air, flying upside-down. Finally, gravity faded away and they were in space.
Scott growled, “I hate you.”
Nick grinned, “Same to you, BFF.” He hit a switch and they were sent plunging through the universe.

+===+

December 31st, 2026.
Polaris.
They landed outside the grand entrance of Polaris’ capitol. As Nick stepped out onto the dark black ground, he clicked his tongue in a mixture of amazement and criticalness, “Ah, Nc. You never cease to lessen your extravagance. You have a home made entirely out of marble, beautifully carved, that’s original...”
Scott stumbled out and grasped Nick’s shoulder, “I don’t care if it’s made out of effing toothpicks, let’s just get inside, see what the most powerful person in the universe wants, and get back home.”
Nick chuckled, “Oh, that won’t help. Nc knows where we live.”
There was a pause as this information sunk into Scott’s thick skull. Then he released a feeble outburst, “What? No he doesn’t.”
Nick shrugged, “To be honest, he just knows the general area where we live. Not that it changes anything; alone he can destroy all of Nebraska in a single blast.”
Scott’s eyes widened and he froze, unsure of himself. Nick laughed, “Relax, if we could defeat Nc once we can do it again.” Scott gave a whimper of fear, but Nick dragged him through the giant marble doors.
The entrance hall was excessively large and was pretty much empty. The floor was the same midnight blue tiles that Nick and Scott had seen in the Nc Tournament’s lobby, but these tiles were sparkling ever so slightly. On the walls, even distances apart, torches hung, but the near-perfect lighting didn’t come from the fire. Above them was a ceiling, but it was so black that they thought there wasn’t anything there at all. Out of the black ceiling hung the largest chandelier either of them had ever seen. Throughout the room there was little else, except for a few elves that had were talking in a small group. Nc didn’t seem to be there.
Scott looked around, “Are we early?”
Nick pulled out the disk, “We’re supposed to be here as soon as possible...and we took a spaceship. I would have thought that all of the Nefarious Twelve would at least be here, considering their abilities to teleport.”
As sudden as an earthquake, the temperature of the room dropped significantly. The flames on the walls grew dim. Nick and Scott shivered slightly.
From a side door a woman in a large, flashy blue dress strutted in. She raised her arms up, shouting so that everyone in the room could hear her, “I, 9ice, Ruler of Cold, have arrived. Please hold your applause.”
There was an eerie silence as nothing happened. Everything was still. 9ice dropped her arms, “For heavens’ sakes, have you all no respect?” She scoffed and walked off her disappointment.
Nick whispered in Scott’s ear, “That was 9volt’s mother. And if you were wondering, that dress and those gloves are made of frozen cobalt. Incredibly hard to fashion so that it makes something flexible, like clothing. I’ll have to ask how she did it.”
There was a clap on their shoulders and they both jumped. The hands on their shoulders turned them around. It was Scott’s father, Toranado, the Ruler of Winds.
“Scott!” he cried in his ever-present Spanish accent, “How great it is to see you again, my child!”
Scott hugged him deeply and Toranado returned it, “It is indeed, father. Have you met Nick?”
They broke their embrace and Nick shook Toranado’s hand. Toranado nodded, “No, but it is a great honor to meet Nicholas Sven at long last.” He abruptly pulled Nick towards him and spoke softly into his ear, “Did Scott tell you that I invented the Spanish language and ruled over the humans as the first king of Spain?”
Shocked, Nick whispered back, “Yes to the first but no to the second.”
Toranado sighed, “If it ever gets out, I will be in terrible trouble with Nc. You must keep my secret safe, understand?”
“You can trust me.”
Toranado suddenly threw him away and said loudly, “Excellent!”
As he walked away, Scott muttered to Nick, “What was that all about?”
Nick shrugged, “I’ll tell you later. Oh, it’s 9volt.”
They ran over to the side door where 9volt the Second had appeared, holding a disk identical to Nick and Scott’s and looking around, bewildered. His tense emotions seemed to melt away when he saw them, “Oh, thank goodness you two are here. I was nervous, because I’m the oldest non-Nefarious Thirteen elf still alive, and I thought I was going to be alone and-” He stopped himself and took a deep breath. He twisted his arm around the back of his head and licked his elbow. He smacked his lips and returned to normal, “Anyway, I’m glad you’re here.”
Nick laughed, “Why so nervous? It’s not like two of the Nefarious Twelve aren’t your parents.”
9volt looked around. He pointed out his mother and his father, 9volt the First, who were talking to each other on the far side of the room. Scott rubbed his chin, “I didn’t see your dad come in, did you?”
9volt frowned, “He travels by lightning. Easily noticeable.” He shook his head, “Here’s the thing; my parents don’t like me all that much. They’re very strict, and very demanding. They gave up on me thousands of years ago.”
“So you’re like a vagrant,” Nick said.
9volt nodded, “Yes. Now, I’m going up to check out that chandelier. Don’t wait up.” His body dissolved into small purple particles, which flew up to the black ceiling and out of sight.
Scott looked to Nick, an eyebrow raised, “We need to find some sort of buddy. We’re just two people. We need someone like...” he trailed off, looking over Nick’s shoulder. “Venus,” he breathed. Nick turned, and indeed, his sister stood there, wearing a dress to rival that of 9ice’s. The gown was practically glowing, it was so white. It also was abnormally large, probably in order to be flashy in a professional manner.
Scott started to run towards her, arms outstretched, shouting her name. He was almost there when Nick teleported to Venus’ side, flashed her a smile, and stuck out his leg, tripping Scott.
Scott stood up with a scowl while Venus pretended this act had not even occurred, “Earth! Scott! It’s so nice to see you again...both of you!” She kissed Nick on the cheek and hugged Scott. Behind her back Scott made a rude gesture to Nick. She broke away and smiled.
Nick frowned at Scott but turned to Venus with a fake smile on his face, “Yes, and might I say what...interesting places we’ve seen each other on recently. Last year at that vampire’s house and now here, at the Nc Council?”
Venus playfully bumped into Nick, “That reminds me, happy Tammuz. And...” she turned to him, a hurt expression now playing across her face, “You never visited me in Paris.”
Nick’s eyes darted around, “I meant to...I just got preoccupied, what with NSK and that solar eclipse last October-”
“And you still need to finish my planet!”
This statement seemed to physically cause Nick pain. He jerked back, and grimaced, “Yes, an-and I’m working on it, I am...”
Behind Venus’ back Scott mouthed the word, “Mobius,” but Nick glared at him in refusal. Scott shrugged and turned Venus around to face him, “Hey, Venus, I was there with him on those occasions. Not a lot of work could be done in the last year, I’m sure you’ve seen it on the news...”
Venus sighed, “Fine. Maybe I am getting impatient.” She set a finger on Nick’s nose, “But you better try harder to visit me. I still did when I had my own planet and a mate to take care of.”
As she walked away, Scott stared at her and leaned over, whispering to Nick, “Why are you afraid of her? She’s a pacifist, isn’t she?”
Nick sighed, “Yes, but I care for her like...well, like a sister. I’ve managed to wrong her way more than I’ve done for anyone else, and every single time was unintentional.”
Scott grinned, “I just hope I can wrong her.”
Nick chuckled, but frowned, “I’ll let that one go because you helped me out, you little pervert.” His eyes scanned the room, which was rapidly filling up with elves. He pointed to Lavana, the Ruler of Fire, “Do you want to say hi to Lavana?”
Scott frowned, “Nah. He’s a little too...whimsical for me.”
Nick looked around again, “Hmmm...what about...” he turned and found himself face-to-face with a staring pair of eyes. He jumped back in alarm and realized that the eyes were attached to a man.
He had blonde hair, which was smoothly combed, no doubt for the formal occasion. He was the only elf Nick had ever seen with a beard, which didn’t match his hair because it was black. The beard, which happened to be a Vandyke, looked pointed enough to gouge their eyes out. His eyes were a deep black. He wore a cheap suit, gray and boring.
They stood there, staring at each other for several uncomfortable moments. Finally, Scott and Nick simultaneously blinked. The man did not. Scott took a step forward and waved a hand in front of his face.
Without moving his eyes from staring straight ahead, and without blinking, the man moved his head so as to look at Scott. “Please don’t do that,” he said, and this was so unexpected that Scott jumped backwards in alarm.
Nick suspiciously reached out his arm, “Nicholas Sven, of the Original Six.”
The man, without hesitation, took his hand and shook it, again without blinking and without moving his eyes from staring straight ahead. “Plasmatis, Ruler of Plasma, fourth son of Nc.”
Scott shook his hand next and instead of introducing himself, he stared at Plasmatis’ face and cocked his head, “Dude, are you having a seizure or something?”
He turned to Scott with what seemed to be a hint of rage, but it was hard to tell because he apparently had no way to show emotion, “No. I cannot move my eyes, so I must move my head instead.”
“But,” Nick said, nervously, “Doesn’t it hurt, after a while? Can you even blink?”
Plasmatis looked at him and frowned, “No, I cannot.”
There was another awkward silence and then Plasmatis looked away, saying, “I think that might be my wife. Goodbye, Nick and Scott.”
Scott and Nick looked at each other. They both shivered. Nick swallowed, “That was bizarre.”
Scott raised his eyebrows, “That was insane. I swear his eyes weren’t even bloodshot.” He made a gesture to his own eyes, “It was like Brianna, remember? He was so pale, I could have sworn he was a vampire if it weren’t for the fact he was one of the Nefarious Twelve.”
They tried to look back at Plasmatis, but he had disappeared. Nick looked at his watch, “Okay, it’s been nearly an hour since the disk started to go off. And,” he looked around,” I think almost everyone’s here by now...” He trailed off, staring straight ahead. Scott followed his gaze.
Standing in the middle of a small gap was an elf that looked unusually childish. He had blonde-red hair, and freckles around his nose. Other than Nick and Scott, he was the only one in casual clothing; he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. His eyes were an intense ocean blue color, which flicked around as if he was incredibly lost.
Nick growled, “Tyler!”
He strutted towards Tyler with contempt. Tyler turned towards him and nervously held up his hands, eyes widening out of pure fear, “Nick! I never expected-I mean, I-it’s been so long-”
Nick reached out and grabbed Tyler’s throat. Tyler choked, “I suppose it’s...it’s too late for apologies?”
Nick roared and tackled him, beating Tyler with his bare fists. The elves around them turned and watched, but did nothing to stop Nick. As Nick was about to punch Tyler’s nose, water sprung up around them and coated Nick’s arm. Nick growled and turned his head to see Aquarius, the Ruler of Water, holding out his hand.
“Stop,” he said sternly.
Nick glared at him but stood up off of Tyler. Aquarius dropped his hand and the water shrank away. He walked over to Tyler and helped him up.
Nick furiously walked back to Scott, who was looking at him with confusion clear upon his face, “What was that all about?”
Nick grunted infuriately, “Tyler was Zack’s top associate when he was fighting us. I now have reason to believe that he’s Aquarius’ son.” He turned and glared at the Ruler of Water.
There was an intense voice from the far side of the room, “All right everyone! Settle down! Off to the sides of the room!”
The room cleared away and Nick and Scott saw who had spoken; it was Nc himself. Nick and Scott moved with the crowd out of the way. Nc waved his hand and a gray table appeared out of thin air. It settled on the floor and nine chairs rose out of the tile around both of the two long sides. A single, larger chair with armrests appeared at the head of the table and Nc grabbed it, saying, “Well, don’t all of you sit down at once.”
Plasmatis walked up to him and tapped his shoulder, “Nc, I realize your impatience, but Gravitatious has not yet arrived...”
Aquarius nodded, “Indeed, R has not either...”
Nc glared at them both, as if he was mad that they had not sat down immediately, “Gravitatious has been missing for millions of years; I highly doubt she’s going to show up here, anytime soon. And as for R...” he turned his head so that he was staring straight at Nick, even though he was halfway across the room, “I have reasons to believe that she won’t be here either.”
The elves hurried to seat themselves in their assigned chairs, and Scott whispered in Nick’s ear, “Do you think he knows you petrified R?”
Nick looked at him out of the corner of his eye, “I don’t know. Lavana was there, and he might have told him, but I’m not sure...”
To Nc’s right sat 9volt the First, and to his left sat 9ice. All of his sons sat to his right in order of birth and his daughters to his left. At the end of the sons sat Nick’s mother, Minerva, the Ruler of Violence. Across from her was Nick’s father, ShadowNc, the Ruler of Darkness. There were empty seats across from Aquarius and Plasmatis where R and Gravitatious, respectively, should have sat.
Scott sat to Minerva’s right and across from Nick. To his left was 9volt. Nick sat between ShadowNc and an elf with flaming red hair.
Nick turned to the red-headed elf and offered his hand, “Hello, I am Nicholas Sven. And you?”
As he turned to accept his hand, his hair seemed to shimmer and wave. A bizarre cackling sound was heard. “Fyrus. Son of Lavana and twin of Kristen.”
Nick nodded and shook his hand, staring at Fyrus’ hair for a few seconds before becoming self-conscious and looking away. There was something odd about Fyrus...
Scott turned to 9volt and poked his arm, “Switch seats with Venus.” 9volt turned to his right to see Venus sitting next to him, and then turned back to Scott.
“No,” he said firmly.
“Please!” Scott begged, “What’s wrong with sitting on the end?” He leaned over to make sure this wasn’t a false statement; Tyler sat across from her, but there was no one else farther down the table.
A knife slammed down into the hem of Scott’s shirt sleeve. He looked at it and furrowed his brow, “What in the world...”
He looked up into the brown eyes of Minerva, barely an inch from his face. He let out a cry of shock and clutched his heart.
Minerva smiled, “Nice to see you again, Lycanthrope.”
Scott grinned painstakingly, “The feeling is mutual.”
Minerva’s smile faded, “Were you just asking to sit next to my daughter?”
Scott stared at her for a moment, confused, before connecting the dots in his head, “Oh, no, I mean...yes, but, uh, I just meant-”
Minerva pulled the knife pinning Scott’s arm to the table up and pointed it at Scott’s eye. He looked at it warily. “Let’s get one thing straight, Lycanthrope,” she said, waving the knife back and forth ever so slightly, “I don’t like you. And I think it would be in your best interests to keep your distance. Otherwise, someone might get hurt. Understand?”
Scott swallowed nervously, “Yes, Miss Ruler of Violence.”
Minerva smiled again. She concealed her knife up her sleeve and patted Scott on the head, “Now that’s a good boy.”
She turned away while Scott looked at Nick and mouthed, “I don’t like your mom.”
Nick grinned as Nc started talking: “Members of the Nc Council! I welcome you to our Seventh Gathering, and our first with The Original Six...or what’s left of them,” he said, frowning.
The Nefarious Twelve applauded, and the three elves to Nick’s left joined in after a moment of hesitation.
Nc continued, “But we are not forgetting their five twins, are we?” He looked down the table and frowned once more, “Of which two are apparently dead.”
There was more applause, and this time Scott and Nick joined in. Nick leaned over to ShadowNc, saying softly, “Only five twins?”
ShadowNc whispered back, “About a year ago one of the twins was dispersed from the Council. Not even considered an elf anymore. Now Nc pretends he never existed.”
“What did he do?” Nick asked, surprised.
ShadowNc shrugged.
“Now then,” Nc said, his voice slightly raised, “Let me remind you all that I only come to you when I have a problem that I cannot...” he raised his hand and clenched it into a fist, “...possibly handle myself. In the past, most of you remember...our Fifth Gathering was to eradicate that annoying little pack of Sirens that invaded my home. I’m sure the Nefarious Twelve all remember our Second Gathering, without which the Original Six would not have been born.
“And now to business. I presume you all remember September 6th, of last year?”
Scott turned to Nick and raised an eyebrow.
Nc gestured around the room, “The Second Quarter-Century Nc Tournament was nearing its climax.”
Scott laughed under his breath.
“...the fight was between Earth and Elemental of the Original Six and myself. As per regulations, I decided to go easy on them. However...they still were very weak.”
There was some stifled laughter directed towards Nick and Scott. They blushed with rage. Nick burst to his feet, “That’s not true! We defeated you!”
Nc raised an eyebrow and slowly rose out of his chair. He looked at Nick intensely, “Yes, I was just getting to that. I think you would have learned better to speak up against me, Earth. Especially since I overlooked that little thing that occurred two days prior to our battle. I was sure you would be grateful for that, but apparently I was mistaken.”
Nick sat down and Nc’s lips twitched, “Very good.” He slowly sat back down, but his eyes shifted around at the elves, as if daring someone else to speak out against him. He sighed and closed his eyes, “Now then. Even though I had used less than half of my power, I was quite outmatched thanks to a power I had never seen before...in the form of seven crystals.
Scott gasped, “Oh!”
Nc raised an eyebrow and looked at him, “Yes, Scott? I believe you are the owner of these crystals?”
Scott nodded and grinned. He snapped his fingers and the seven Chaos Emeralds appeared over the table, swirling around in a circle. As a dramatic effect, the lights on the chandelier overhead dimmed so that the only light came from the faint torches on the wall and the Chaos Emeralds.
Nick frowned. There was something odd with this situation, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He felt in his pocket for his own Chaos Emerald that was as powerful as the others put together. It was there, shining with a scarlet light.
Scott pulled a ninth and final Chaos Emerald from his pocket and held it out, it shining with a violet glow. He explained to the Council; “The Chaos Emeralds are objects that define power. Their purely raw energy can be used for powering large machines, with the precision to slice a city exactly in half. The seven you see before you hold enough power to double my own strength; and the one I hold in my hand is just as powerful as all seven put together.”
Nc leaned forward, his eyes glittering, “That is...extraordinary.”
Scott grinned, “Is it not?”
Nc’s eyes flickered to meet Scott and he straightened, clapping his hands together to return the lighting to normal. He cleared his throat, “Well, Scott, this is...difficult to put into words...but I don’t think you are worthy to hold such Emeralds.”
Scott’s smile vanished in an instant. “W-what?”
Nc looked at him intensely, “If these Emeralds can double your power, than who knows what...the wrong person could do with them? I’m sure you’ve had some trouble in the past; keeping them under your control, have you not?”
Scott bit his lip nervously.
Nc held out his hand, “Give them to me.”
Scott wavered, “No.”
Nc raised an eyebrow, “What did you just say?”
Scott swallowed, mentally preparing himself, “I said no, Nc. This is an outrage; the Chaos Emeralds rightfully belong to me, I’ve only let Nick possess the eighth, I bet he has it right now.”
Nick’s eyes widened, “Scott!”
Scott looked around, “Yes! Why do you, Nc, think that you get to choose their fate? You’re just jealous and confused that we were able to defeat you!”
“How dare you!”
9volt the First had jumped to his feet. He pointed a finger at Scott accusingly, “How dare you say that about Nc!”
Nc sank back into his chair and crossed his arms, “Indeed. I have reached a conclusion on this Council: Elemental and Earth are to be executed, if they do not relinquish the Chaos Emeralds to me!”
The seven Chaos Emeralds in the air flew back into Scott’s hand. He looked panicked, but managed to get in one last word, “You know we can just teleport with these things, right?”
At this, Nc’s patience finally snapped. He growled furiously and screamed, “Stop them!”
9volt the First leaped onto the table and held out his arm, which was cackling with electricity.
Scott’s eyes grew and he shouted, “Okay, time to go! Chaos Control!”
He and Nick disappeared and 9volt released a huge discharge of electricity, completely destroying the chairs where they had sat.

+===+

December 31st, 2026.
Germany.
Even though it was the middle of the day, it was black as night as Nick and Scott walked through a forest, exiled from the Nc Council. Nick grunted in displeasure, “Where’d you send us to, Scott?”
Scott made a small, indescribable noise and said, “Schwarzwald. I thought of it because the forest is the source of a lot of fairy tales, and it has certain...properties.”
“Like what, exactly?”
“This forest blocks out the elements. Literally. We could hide in here for centuries before Nc found us. We could live off the Rhine and the various berries and,” he shuddered from delight, “Black Forest Cake.”
Nick raised an eyebrow, “What makes you sure that this particular forest has those particular properties? There is not a single place in the universe devoid of Nc’s gaze.”
Scott smacked his lips, “Trust me on this.”
Nick looked around, “It doesn’t even make logical sense; a river runs right through it, it’s eternally shrouded in darkness, fire effects it like any other-”
“You don’t know that,” Scott pointed out.
Nick snapped his fingers and a nearby tree burst into flame. The bark burnt away and the leaves crinkled up and died, before Nick clenched his fist and the tree was extinguished.
Scott sighed, “Fine. I have no extensive proof.” Nick growled and started to walk away. Scott turned to look at something and howled like a wolf. He turned back to Nick, “However...you forget one thing.”
Nick stopped, curious. He cleared his throat, “And what is this one thing?”
Scott grinned, “They haven’t found us yet, have they?”
Nick spun around and walked up to Scott, “That’s preposterous! That detail alone doesn’t mean we can hide here forever, away from Nc and the rest of the Council!”
Scott’s grin didn’t waver for a second. He blinked, “Then you leave the forest and die a painful death.”
Nick faltered. He closed his mouth and pursed his lips, “Fine. Have it your way.”
There was a rustling behind Scott and they looked in the general direction, unsure what to do next. Elementres revealed herself, stamping away from the brush, cursing under her breath.
Nick and Scott relaxed. Nick walked up to her and brushed her off, looking worried. He sighed with a mixture of relief and astonishment, “Elementres, what are you doing here?”
She growled in annoyance and cracked her knuckles, “I don’t know. I was at home-”
“Were you looking through my stuff?” Nick asked, raising an eyebrow.
Elementres looked away, “No,” she said innocently. She rubbed her eye, “And all of a sudden I teleported here. I don’t have any idea how. In fact, right away I heard you two and followed you.”
She suddenly looked at them, as if realizing they existed for the first time. She narrowed her eyes, “The Nc Council isn’t over already, is it?”
Nick sighed, “We were sentenced to execution. Lucky Scott was flaunting the Chaos Emeralds before we got fried.”
Elementres looked at Scott and raised an eyebrow, “Need I even ask why you were condemned?”
Scott crossed his arms, “I’d prefer you didn’t.”
Nick hugged her tightly and sighed, “It’s horrible, Elementres. Nc is jealous of the power that Scott gains from the Emeralds. He wants it for himself. And judging from 9volt the First, he has most of the Council on his side as well.”
Scott walked over to them, “Most?”
Nick broke his embrace and turned to Scott, “A lot of the Council members have secrets of their own or their own reasons to hate Nc. My parents. Toranado. They’ll be on our side for this.”
He turned to Elementres, “Why weren’t you using stealth, like you usually do?”
Elementres growled, “The others weren’t used to using this method.”
Nick and Scott looked at each other, and then back at her, “Others?”
Elementres grunted and flew over to a nearby tree, pulling a knife from its scabbard and swiftly cutting a low hanging branch right off. It fell and revealed four people standing there.
Scott sighed, “Venus!”
Nick elbowed him. He grunted, but didn’t move. Among Venus were 9volt the Second, Fyrus, and Tyler. Nick growled, “You teleported one side of the table with us,” he turned to Scott, infuriated, “Scott!”
Scott slunk away and hid behind 9volt’s back, saying, “At least it’s better than the other half, right?”
Nick growled and turned to Fyrus and Tyler. He walked up to them, “I don’t know whether or not I should trust you. Actually, I know not to trust Tyler, but what about you, Fyrus?”
He turned and made a gesture, and all of his allies were whipped through the air to stand in front of him. He raised and eyebrow and looked from Scott to Venus to 9volt to Elementres, saying, “Do any of you know Fyrus?”
9volt raised his hand, “He was my first round fight for the Nc Tournament. Quick to anger. Doesn’t like me too much. Hair is made of fire.”
“Hair is made of fire?” Nick screamed incredulously, looking at Fyrus’ head. Indeed, his red hair was literally flaming. He made a face, “That’s...interesting.”
“You can trust me, Sven,” he said, “I don’t think if Nc wants the Emeralds, he could do the sensible thing and take them from you using brute force, instead of wasting all of our time with the Council.”
Nick frowned, “Eh, fine. Go stand over with them.”
He pointed over his shoulder and Fyrus rushed to join the allies. Nick turned to Tyler, “Now what are we going to do with you?” He circled around him, still talking. Tyler looked terrified. “We could just kill you. I’ve wanted to kill you for years. It was because of you that I was nearly killed in that freak hailstorm a few million years back, do you remember that? Hail the size of elephants, would you believe that? I certainly wouldn’t have; you were probably hoping I would have died in that, wouldn’t you? Too bad you forgot-”
“Zack only recruited me because I saved his life!” Tyler burst out nervously.
Nick stopped dead cold in his tracks, “What?”
Tyler now saw that Nick’s attention was scattered, and was less nervous. Nevertheless, he still spoke extremely fast, “Zack was my twin brother. After he turned evil, I saved his life.”
“Nonsense,” Scott said, “He’s still alive today, and he’s proven many times over that he doesn’t need anyone to help him with his mortality.”
Tyler cleared his throat, “Not a lot of people know this...but one of Zack’s greatest enemies was his father, Aquarius.”
Nick raised an eyebrow, “What? Why?”
Tyler looked away, “Once Aquarius saw how horrible Zack had become, and he felt a lot of regret for creating him. So one day, when Zack was swimming in the Atlantic, he tried to overwhelm him, and drown him. Needless to say, I was there to help. Not wanting to drown me, Aquarius gave up.
“From then on, Zack stayed away from the water. He wouldn’t even go out in the rain. In case of a flash flood, he stayed underground, secured by reinforced steel.”
“So all these years,” Scott said, “Our worst enemy had a water phobia?”
Tyler nodded, “I never agreed to joining Zack. I never liked what he was doing. This isn’t know too widely, but on July 19th, 1432,”
“The day Kristen died?” Nick asked.
Tyler nodded, “Yes. On that day, there was a rebelling among us. Aaron was dead by then, I don’t know what Dakota wanted, but I just didn’t want to fight anymore. That left just Zack and Lance.”
Nick looked at Tyler and sighed, “Fine, I believe you. But the first thing that goes wrong,” he leaned in close to Tyler, narrowing his eyes malevolently, “is your fault.”

+===+

“...I’m not pointing any fingers here, but Scott is the most human-like elf in the entire universe. He actually feels the need to eat food,” Nick said, smiling.
The group laughed, except for Scott, who was fuming. The conversation had taken a lighter turn, which in this case was making fun of Scott’s abnormal lifestyle.
Elementres spoke up, “One time I saw him struggling to read a sign. We were in Italy. It said ‘Come on in, we’re open!’”
The elves roared with laughter, again without Scott, who looked confused, “What? I can’t read Italian! So what?”
This only made them laugh harder and Nick explained to Scott, “Italian is one of the three Elvin languages. Elf is for proper, elegant situations, English is for everyday formats-”
“And Italian is for the low-class group, which every single elf can speak!” Fyrus burst out.”
Nick clutched his side as he laughed. He put his hand on Scott’s shoulder, “Oh, come now. Let’s not make fun of Scott for being illiterate. That’s not his fault...entirely. Let’s make fun of the fact that he can’t fly.”
There was a pause as everyone looked at Scott expectantly. 9volt broke the silence, saying, “Well? Is it true?”
Scott shook his head, exasperatedly confused, “Of course...I don’t know...what?”
Nick grinned. He chuckled, as if Scott was a small child that had made a mistake, “Scott, Scott, Scott. It’s simple Elvin logic. Walk with me.”
They resumed walking through the forest, with the others following close behind. Nick spoke comfortingly, “Two opposing elements bear down on you every day. Either one on their own would crush you. However, there is an equal match between the two that causes you not to be crushed. These elements are that of Wind, and Gravity. Gravity obviously pulls you down. A specific kind of Wind, called air pressure, pulls you up. By lowering the amount of Gravity, or heightening the amount of air pressure, an elf can hover.” To prove this, he began to walk while standing on a cushion of air. He was now significantly taller than Scott, causing him to look up to Nick while he was talking, “In order to move on this lack of Gravity or amplification of Wind, the elf simply manipulates the Wind around them to move about. Alternatively, they could just cause the gravity around them to move in a different direction, but this is similar to free-falling inside a potato sack.”
“No doubt,” Fyrus said unexpectedly, “Scott is perhaps the worst elf I have ever seen. You just explained flight to him, when most elves know it from birth. Clearly the most human-like elf I have ever seen.”
Elementres raised an eyebrow at this statement. Nick looked from Scott to Fyrus and back several times, indecisive. 9volt cleared his throat, “Maybe we should talk about something else.”
Nick nodded, “Yes. And let’s keep walking. It wouldn’t be wise to stay in one place too long, even here.”
They had stopped walking at Fyrus’ comment without realizing it. They continued walking, and 9volt nervously tried to relieve the tension with conversation, “I’m curious as to what Nc said at the Council. The thing about Gravitatious being missing for millions of years. Do you think she’s dead?”
“Obviously not,” Nick said impassively, “As her name implies, she is the Ruler of Gravity. And we still have Gravity, do we not?”
“She could have Passed her element,” Tyler pointed out.
“Passed?” Elementres said quizzically.
“When an elf in control of one of the elements dies, they have the power to grant it upon a successor.” Nick explained.
“And if they don’t?” Elementres asked.
“The element dies with them,” Fyrus said darkly. “Across the universe, every last bit of it disappears instantly.”
“We’re lucky that’s never happened,” Nick said coolly, “It would be disastrous for NSK, let alone the human population.”
9volt nodded, “So you’re saying that Gravitatious could have died, and Passed her element?”
“Maybe,” Nick said, “I don’t know enough about her. Interlock a few strands of thought, and possibly...”
He trailed off, stopping and looking around abruptly. He frowned, “Do you feel that?”
“What?” Venus asked.
Nick’s eyes shifted around the dark trees searchingly, “Something...like an increase in pressure or something.”
“Have we been going up a hill?” 9volt asked.
Elementres drew a knife, “No. But I feel it too. It’s bizarre...”
The others mumbled their agreements, with the exception of Scott. He looked around at them, saying, “I don’t feel anything.”
Nick took a few steps forward, and then turned towards the right, walking that direction for a bit. He nodded and scowled, “The pressure increases over here...it’s befuddling.”
He looked at the rest of the group for a moment and then took off through the trees, quite unexpectedly. They looked at each other in surprise, and then Elementres chuckled, running off after him, the rest lagging behind.
They twisted and turned through the forest, chasing after Nick. They traveled in a general rightward direction, but sometimes they veered off, once going one hundred twenty-five degrees in reverse. In seconds, everyone but Nick and Elementres were extremely fatigued, not to mention that the pressure was now almost unbearable. Still, they followed at a meager pace, not stopping for fear of losing sight of Nick or Elementres.
At one point Fyrus collapsed from the pressure and groaned loudly about it, further confusing Scott. All this way, he had still not noticed any change in pressure. He helped Fyrus to his feet and ran ahead, confidence growing.
Nick, Elementres, and Scott, thus, were the first to enter a small clearing. The trees were tall and old here, spreading their branches far and blocking out the sun more than usual. This hinted that this was the oldest part of the forest. On a large stump sat an old woman with pale wrinkled skin, and split gray hair. She looked as if she was meditating.
Fyrus, 9volt, Venus, and Tyler caught up with them. Fyrus gasped when he saw the woman. He dropped to the forest floor and lay still, saying, “It is the Ruler of Gravity.”
At these words the woman opened her eyes and looked at them. She did not show any sort of emotion. She grunted, “Yes, I am Gravitatious. For the last eight million years I have hidden myself away in this forest, away from any elves. Unfortunately, you have found me.”
Scott frowned. Everyone else seemed to be affected by the increase in gravity except for him and this woman. In fact, she seemed as if she could bounce towards them at any minute on her toes, despite her rotund appearance. He cleared his throat, “Gravitatious, why would you hide away all these years?”
She chuckled, “Is it not obvious? Have you not seen how corrupt and disproportionate Nc is to the rest of the elves? And not just him, but all of the others.”
“What do you mean?” 9volt asked, curious.
Gravitatious cocked her head, thinking, “Let me think...I think, of the Nefarious Twelve, the worst is by far Toranado.”
An odd sensation fell over Scott. He blinked and stared at the woman in front of him, looking at her in a new light.
“...he created his own kingdom among the humans. His own language! I was on my way to tell Nc, but he begged me not to! Being merciful as I was, I let it go, but he broke one of the most sacred Elvin laws; never interact with humans. Because of him, there are so many corrupt humans in the world! It’s all Toranado’s fault! He raised them like he raised his own children! Those filthy, bastard Lycanthropes!”
“No!” Scott shouted. He raised his arm and shot a blast of wind at the Ruler of Gravity. She merely waved her hand and the stream flitted away to the ground.
Gravitatious leaped to her feet a little more fast than they had thought possible. She slowly approached Scott menacingly, “So. You’re his son, are you? One of the Original Six, am I correct, Scott Lycanthrope?”
Scott nodded and she continued, “Ah, of course. No one in their right mind would defend Toranado, not if they knew what he did to his poor children.”
“What did he do?” Elementres growled through clenched teeth.
Gravitatious chuckled, “He tried to make them immortal from birth. Something to do with coming back to life after death, something in their central nervous system. However, he screwed up. Now his children are freaks, werewolves, unfit to be among the rest of us.” Scott growled, but she ignored it, “And now when they die, they come back to life as damned vampires! And it’s all Toranado’s fault!”
“Liar!” Scott screamed. He lashed out with his hand, trying to inflict blind pain to the Ruler of Gravity and failing miserably. She simply grabbed his arm and smirked.
Nick stepped forward, pulling a pistol from his pocket and pointing it at Gravitatious’ head. He shouted at her, “Stop! For being so wise as to the corruptions of Nc, you sure are prejudice yourself.”
Gravitatious narrowed her eyes at him. She let go of Scott and Nick’s gun flew into her hands. She studied it for a moment, and then tossed it away. It seemed to crush itself, finally imploding. They all gasped in shock.
“Well then,” Gravitatious said, cracking her knuckles, “If you really feel that way, then how would you feel if I did this?”
She snapped her fingers, and Nick and Scott were lifted off their feet, floating away. They struggled, but soon found their hands pinned to their sides. Elementres ran forward, but was stopped by Gravitatious’ hand. Nick saw this and yelled down to her, “Elementres, I’ll be fine! We both will! Don’t worry, just keep yourself safe!”
They both floated away, soon to be specks in the sky. Gravitatious looked back at the rest of them, “Now, who else shares their opinion? Because it’s not too late for you to join them...”
They looked at each other for a few seconds. 9volt opened his mouth bravely-
“None of us,” Elementres said quickly, glaring at 9volt. She gestured back the way they had come, saying, “Come on, let’s get out of this forest.”

+===+

December 31st, 2026.
London, England.
Nick awoke to a bizarre situation. He was in a dark room, with a single shaft of light in the center. All around him, it was raining money.
He groaned and sat up. He saw Scott staring up out of the hole and everything that had happened already that day came back to him with a bang. He growled and stood up, saying, “Scott, do you know where we are?”
Scott grunted, “No. I’m just wondering how we both managed to create that hole.”
Nick looked at it, and indeed it looked too small for them to fit through. He frowned, “How do you know we went through the hole? Isn’t there a door somewhere...?”
Scott pointed over his shoulder, “Yeah, over there, but it’s locked from the outside. I know we crashed through the hole because I became conscious right before impact.”
Nick grabbed one of the bills irately, saying, “And what are all of these things?”
“British money. I think we’re in an armored car.”
Nick froze, “What? How long have we been in here? Has anyone noticed?”
Scott looked at him, “You woke up only a few minutes after I did. And judging by the fact that we’ve stopped, I think the drivers have noticed, thank you very much.”
Nick swallowed, “But, doesn’t that mean...”
Scott nodded, “They’re right outside.”
At his words, and as if on cue, the doors swung open, blinding them with the sudden light. Two uniformed guards stood outside, silhouetted. They held large rifles, pointed at both of them. One of them shouted in a thick English accent, “Come out with your hands up.”
Nick and Scott looked at each other, their eyebrows raised. They held up their hands and walked forward. One of the guards lowered his weapon to retrieve his handcuffs from his back pocket.
Nick scoffed, “Amateurs.”
The one that had reached for the handcuffs looked up in surprise. He confusedly drawled out in his thick accent, “Wha-”
Nick waved his hand. The second guard’s gun veered into the first’s head, knocking him unconscious. Nick waved his hand again and the gun reared back in the guard’s hands. He struggled with it for a moment, slowly gaining an edge, when Nick grabbed the muzzle of the rifle.
He smiled, terrifying the guard. He shot Nick in the head and the bullet stuck in his forehead. Nick was unfazed. He wrenched the rifle out of his grasp and swung it around, smashing it into the guard’s temple.
Nick threw aside the gun as they jumped out of the armored car. In front of them was a gray, unmarked building with a large roof that didn’t seem to be able to be supported by the tiny first story. A flag pole and a sign stood outside, informing them that the building was the ‘England National Bank’.
Scott looked around casually, “Such a dreary place, England is.”
Indeed, the weather was downcast, gray, and exceedingly cloudy. Nick started to voice his agreement when he caught sight of a single snowflake, apparently the first of an upcoming snowfall, drift lazily down towards Scott. Nick pointed it out as it landed on one of Scott’s bang-hairs. The entire hair froze solid, down into Scott’s scalp.
Scott released a cry of pain as Nick plucked it out, staring at it. He slowly looked up, saying equally slowly, “Oh...”
He looked at the flag on the pole, waving wistfully in the wind. Then, like a descending, malevolent cloud, the flag froze in half a second, still in mid-wave. Nick finished his sentence, “...shit.”
It was as if the clouds above had suddenly opened up, dumping all of their flurries of snow upon them at once. They found themselves in the middle of a blizzard almost immediately. Every time one of them struck, it instantly froze the spot where it landed. Nick grabbed Scott’s arm and tore off through the storm.
Nick gritted his teeth as he practically dragged Scott through the blizzard, his eyes shut tight. Then, he saw something he hadn’t seen in a long time. He saw the scene around him, in a backwards-heat vision type of way. Only he was seeing it from a third-person perspective. He saw himself shivering in the center of the storm; Scott by his side, only half-awake. Watching himself, Nick took off towards the bank, unfazed by the cold.
He burst through the door to the bank and stalked off through the lobby, immune to the pain he felt everywhere. He opened his eyes and dropped Scott, saying, “That...was exactly the reason...not to get on 9ice’s bad side.” He swore as Scott sat up.
Scott groaned and stretched his back, “9ice. The dreaded Ruler of Cold?”
Nick growled, “You don’t understand, do you? Those temperatures outside, if I’m correct, were near absolute zero.”
“Absolute zero?”
“The lowest possible temperature in the universe. Humans have come close, but only in completely controlled, extremely small environments. 9ice, obviously, could unleash that hell upon anyone, anytime, anywhere. Those temperatures could freeze anything solid before they could do anything about it.”
Scott shuddered, “Why weren’t we affected?”
“We were. However, with everything else, it freezes from the inside out. Elves’ internal temperatures are regulated,” he tapped his head, “via their own mind. It’s hard for 9ice to take over that control.”
Scott nodded in understanding, even though he was wildly confused. He suddenly leaped to his feet, “Wait a second, we’re not safe yet? She knows we’re still here, right?”
Nick leaped to his side and grabbed Scott, running towards the far wall, saying, “My god, I hate-”
A bolt of lightning stuck the floor behind them with a deafening crack. They slowly turned around, staring at the smoldering burnt carpet where it had struck. They looked up to see a perfectly round hole in the ceiling where it had gone through.
Nick sighed.
A second bolt struck the floor where Nick’s foot had been; he had instinctively lifted his leg a fraction of a second before. He shouted at Scott, “Run!”
Another bolt narrowly missed Nick’s arm; he grabbed Scott by the arm and ran towards the far wall, weaving around as more and more lightning fell around them. Finally, one bolt fell behind Nick. He pushed Scott away and turned around, holding the lightning back with the palm of his hand. He struggled with it for a moment before throwing it sideways into the wall.
An ear-splitting screech resounded around them, “Enough!” A single lightning bolt struck the floor and 9volt the First stood there. He scowled and stomped towards them.
Nick swallowed, “Scott. You want to teleport us out of here anytime soon?”
Scott shook his head, “Oh, yeah, I forgot. Chaos Control,” he said, almost lazily.
They disappeared and 9volt I screamed in fury, electricity sparking uncontrollably all around him.

+===+

Continued in part two: https://blogs.neoseeker.com/ShadowNc/5988-cracker-chronicle-10-chaos-unofficial-part-two/

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