I finally have some serious free time to update this story muchmore than I have been able to in awhile, and hopefully I'll finally manage to get it done sometime in the near future.

Chaotic World
Journey to the Center of the Earth

Eris' Fortress of Chaos - Skarr's Special Suite - 5:01 PM

Skarr bent over his computer, which just so happened to take up an entire room of his suite, where he had absolute control over every single security detail in the entire fortress. His goddess was very trusting of her generals. At the moment, he was tapping busily, weary circles shadowing his eyes, he hadn't slept last night, too busy.

He was dressed in the uniform of his old days, as a commanding officer ofEvil Con Carne, a terrorist group led by a purple bear wearing a talking brain and stomach. Skarr had found it absolutely ridiculous for so many reasons he could barely stand to list them. But it felt good to be in charge, at the very top, once again. If Hector Con Carne still lived, he would weep before his power. General Skarr had absolute power, and he loved it.

Skarr found what he had been looking for, a video feed labeled "SUITE402SURVEILLANCE" he clicked on it, and a visual appeared of his suite's main room, he quickly dragged another file, labeled "MAINROOMLOOP" onto it, and he grinned, sure it was working. He clicked on to the next file, and did the same thing, except with a different loop. It showed him typing and leaving for coffee. Over. And over. And over. What his goddess didn't know couldn't hurt her.

Skarr sat up, looking back at the screen as he did, where it showed him entering the room, steaming cup of coffee in hand. He left the room, and sat on the couch in front of the glass table in the center of the main room of his suite, and he pulled the basket of azaleas off of the silver circle that was the top of the center pillar of the low, glass table. He had requested it installed, unbeknownst to Eris, and had paid the contractor to make it hollow. The security system was his own.

He opened the top of it, reaching his fingers into an almost unnoticeable notch on one side of the circle. It popped open and revealed a compartment containing a combination lock with a plexi-glass cover over it. Next to it was a small red scanner which he promptly but his thumb upon. It glowed and there was a beep. "Hello, General, I was last opened three days, nine hours, thirty-three minutes, and six seconds ago." Skarr smiled bitterly.

The cover over the dial popped open with a hiss, and he dialed in the six-digit combination, which he had not written down on a paper or stored on his computer, if he was discovered, the combination would die with him. But, now, there was another long hiss and the secondary cover popped and slowly slid upwards. There was something circular and silver inside of it.

"I told my old friend, Hector.. I dominate next to no man.. Or woman."

Rebel Base - Briefing Room - 5:22 PM

"Okay, does everyone get the idea?" Hoss Delgado stood infront of a holo-screen showing a three-dimensional map of a hundred twisting, nightmarish tunnels, and his metal hand was transformed into an extendable pointer which was directed at an elongated cavern at the very bottom of the map, which was, for whatever reason, on fire. A second later, the pointer retracted with a snap.

Grim stared in disbelief at the map, looking at Hoss like he was out of his damn mind, which may or may not have been true. "So, Nergal is still alive, then?" Grim scratched his skull, though there was no skin to itch. "I suppose that isn't a surprise." Mandy slithered out of the corner of the room. "Nergal's old, Grim. True, he's as powerful as he ever was. But you've been "hypnotized" for awhile, I'm frankly surprised Hoss is as healthy as he is." Delgado grunted.

"But Nergal Jr. has, to be honest, become the Lord of the Underworld since you were gone, Grim. The Underworld is one of the few places still untouched by Chaos, all thanks to Junior. And, needless to say, he's gained power beyond all reason. And believe me, he isn't the quiet nerd you're probably used to." She furrowed her brow, and Billy's antenna beeped.

Grim, his gaze lingering on Billy for a moment, looked back at the map. "So, we're going ta' go in, try to believe we'll be able to find our way through dis maze , and waltz right up to da Gates of the Underworld?" Mandy stared emotionlessly, and he tilted his skull lazily to the side.

"Oh, mon.."

----------

"We're lost, mon."

Grim said, looking at the tunnel ceiling above him, which was a couple of feet from his skull. Irwin, holding up the holo-map, glanced balefully at him. The cavern walls around them oozed what Grim was quite sure was blood, and all the walls were a dull purple that glowed with an unearthly light. "Are we supposed to go dat way?" He pointed at an intersection of tunnel which looked like the one they were at. "Yes, and so do all the hundreds of other tunnel intersections!" Irwin growled and Grim retreated against a nearby wall that was free of the red liquid. Sometimes he missed the nerds in this world, but atleast he still had Billy, who hadn't changed at all. Despite being a robot, anyway.

Irwin, with some help from Payne and Delgado, finally managed to track down where they were, and still their arguing echoed off the tunnel walls. "They'll hear us before we get there.." Grim sighed, looking boredly at Billy.

"So, Billy, how are you?" Billy looked at him with his tongue hanging from his mouth, then he yelled in a low and goofy voice "Yeah!" Grim groaned. "Eh, right."

The tunnels were long and empty, and Grim found himself wondering when they would be attacked by something from around the corner. Ofcourse, as life would have it, he got his wish. "Grim, do fish think?" Grim blinked, looking at Billy in bewilderment. "Billy - !" But he was rudely interrupted by an explosion of tentacles as the cavern walls around them collapsed. "Mother fook!"

Twisting tentacles swarmed over them, machine gun fire ripped through the air, ringing in Grim's skull as Delgado fired upon the creature from his mechanical hand. Payne retreated back next to Grim, swinging his mace, charged up with dark energy, directly into one of the beast's tendrils, there was a small explosion of energy, and it severed, green blood spewing from it on to Payne's cloak.

It landed at Grim's feet, a pool of glowing, green blood pooling on the tunnel floor. And in horrified awe he saw that small, green eyes covered the tentacle. Another swung next to his head, and he saw a hundred eyes following him as it passed. "Sweet singing scythes!" The creature's full body slithered out of the opening in the wall, and through the dust Grim saw it:

Its body was a mottled blue-gray, shaped like a short, bloated worm. It had no eyes, so it saw and felt with its tentacles. At first, Grim thought it didn't have a face or mouth, but a second later, its maw split into four sections in an "X" shape. Slime dripped between it and its four smooth tongues shot out and wrapped around Delgado's regular arm. He shouted, and pulling a neon laser sword, and sliced two of them away. A high-pitched screech came from the creature and the other two tongues recoiled.

And then Grim remembered; The Tunnel Creeper! It slithered the hidden caverns between the Earth's crust and the Gates of Hell, leading to the next dimension, The Underworld. "Delgado, shoot into the mouth!" Irwin, brandishing a large gattling gun, stopped firing, even though he'd barely made a mark on the Creeper's rough hide. Delgado looked back at Grim, growling.

"Whatever you say, Reaper!" And as the creature roared again, its two remaining tongues squirming, he changed his hand into the energy cannon and aimed down its throat. There was a loud buzzing noise and a ball of blue energy exploded into the creature, and it pulled its mouth flaps back together, gurgling noises escaping from its throat.

The Creeper's tendrils twitched through the air, releasing those in its grasp. And with a sickening groan, beams of light exploded from the Creeper's skin and it suddenly exploded in a flash of blinding, blue light, sending everyone against the wall. As it died down Grim looked around him wildly, as the dust cleared, he saw Lord Payne reaching out a hand. He took it and stood up with a low grunt.

Delgado and Irwin were already standing, Billy was buried head-first in rubble and Creeper guts, his lower half the only thing visible, which was currently kicking violently. Grim stumbled over, grabbed his foot, and pulled him out. Billy was grinning as he reached down and replaced his hat on his head. "Heehee, that was fun!" Grim furrowed his brow. "Shall we keep going?" Irwin looked at him. "Yeah." He straightened his dark glasses and motioned for them to follow.

Grim looked sadly down at the new velvet cloak Mandy had given him as a present. Now it was soaked in Creeper slime and the tunnel's red liquid that constantly leaked from the walls. His own hands were covered in it, the red contrasting with the gold, gleaming; like blood.

----------

Soon, a soft light became visible through the tunnels, adding to their own inner light in an eerie glow that set Grim on edge. He wasn't sure whether there was more than one Creeper, but then again, he had never needed to use these tunnels before, being able to open portals through time and space with his magical scythe.

He missed his scythe. It was like his friend, a loyal companion, with a sharpened edge. Though his time with Billy and Mandy had, despite everything he said, certainly softened him up, his scythe had always been there. How many times people had tried to steal it he couldn't count, and how many times it got him out of trouble was even higher, and the times it had gotten him out of it was even higher. And he couldn't bear to imagine it in the hands of Jack, if that is still who held it.

"Formation!"

He was broken from his thoughts by a shout from Irwin, who had taken position near the bend in the tunnel. Delgado was across from them, pressed against a wall, Payne shortly behind, his mace charged. "Eh?" But Grim looked around and realized that the red light from beyond had grown brighter while he was lost in thoughts of his scythe, and it was emanating from the tunnel beyond. Grim inched forwards and peered around the corner.

There were the Gates of the Underworld, two enormous, iron doors styled in the shape of an elongated skull. It had been patched in places with copper sheet metal. Pipes extended out of the two enormous columns on either side of it, extending to the floor, ceiling, and either wall without obscuring the path to the gate. Looming up behind the stone columns were a series of smokestacks which belched smoke and flame into the air, creating a dark haze in the entire cavern. Needless to say, it had changed quite a bit since the last time Grim had seen it.

Hoss looked at him, and nodded. "Now, though it should be quite obvious, but we aren't going to be able to breach those gates on our own, but we don't need to. Grim, this is your territory, and if we come peacefully, they'll -." But just then, there was a sound like a lion roaring, except several times louder. Rock tumbled from the tunnel ceiling above them and Hoss swore.

"What's happening?"

But just then, there was an explosion of flame from just above the gate, it lit up the ground, and the fireball soared just below the cavern ceiling, and cascaded down, directly towards their small tunnel. "Get down!" It was Irwin, and Grim shut his eyes and hit the ground, the tunnel's blood splattering over his skull. The explosion rocked the earth around him, sending smoke and flame over his head. He heard Payne shouting feverishly a few feet from his head, he peeped open one eye socket.

Whatever had just happened was gone, but a mixture of black smoke and dust swirled around his head, he coughed, getting up on his hands and knees, attempting to wipe some of the falling dust off of his cloak. "Grim!" It was Irwin, and he whirled around, and before he could get out a thought, something smashed into the side of his skull, sending him against the wall. The wall crumbled from the impact, and he looked up through blurry eyes.

Standing above him was a figure almost unrecognizable, wreathed in flame and a daemonic silver armor adorned with the visions of demons and skeletons. One arm had no armor, but was simply a black and green mass of twisted flesh ending in a oversized claw that was pointing at Grim's skull. But, perhaps the most startling of all was his face. The flame swirled around it, illuminating glasses tinted green by the inhuman eyes behind him, and slick, black hair that was curled up in the front. But Grim was speechless.

"Stand up, Reaper!"

Hehe, weren't expecting that, were ya?