Preface: The Rising of the Lost Ones

A man in a dark, hooded cloak, and black gloves, covered entirely in black, except for purple boots and deep, red eyes, entered the counsel room. He didn't take his cloak off as he glided towards the Table of the Rising Councel.

Speak, Pantalus. He heard it not like you hear your friends every day, but as if it was coming deep inside of his head. He didn't worry. He was used to this.

"Lord, why have you called a councel?" asked Pantalus. His voice was echoing, quiet and smooth.

I have called this councel, because I have found them. I have seen the location.

Pantalus gasped. "Lord- The Location of the Lost Ones? The legendary Location we've been searching for for several hundred millenia?"

Yes, indeed, Pantalus. The exact same. Now we can rise the spirits and wreak havok over the world! But why stop there? We could wreak havok over the whole universe with these two!

"So let them rise!"

No, nobody else has arrived yet. I must confess, I am not here yet either.

"Lord?"

Yes, you heard me correctly. Ah, yes, family reunion eh? I bet you'd love to see your MOTHER again...

If a voice in your head could smile, this one did.

And how about your charming brother?

Pantalus was overcome with fear. He had not seen his mother for a million years. And his brother? He was, if possible, even scarier than Pantalus was.

"Wh- Why, lord?"

We must all witness the Effect. We must, together, rise the Great Tantalus and Sorenson!

And suddenly, in came a set of eyes.

No, they weren't on a body, they were just floating in midair, and they were very intense eyes, with these furrowing eyebrows that made you want to run for Momma, even if you were Pantalus.

The eyes also had spikes underneath them sharp enough to break through the center of the earth. They glided in all on their own.

"Why lord!" said Pantalus, hiding his fear underneath his cloak. "You've arrived."

Yes, I have.

"Hey lord?"

Do not adress me by saying hey! Yes, what is it, humble servant?

"Can you stop speaking in my head? It's getting really annoying, and you're here now."

The eyebrows narrowed, but suddenly a cool, clear, and yet sharp voice responded, "Whatever. Though in the future, YOU are the one following orders."

Pantalus gulped. The intense red eyes seemed to peirce straight through his skin. "Y-y-y-yes, Lord!" stammered Pantalus. "W-whatever you s-s-say!"

"Good, little baby brother's learning how to talk!" smirked a voice. It was teasing, yet cold.

And in entered the very person Pantalus did NOT want to see: His big brother. "Cock-A-Doodle?" Pantalus asked nervously.

"Ah, now you know my name right!" chuckled the thing, for that's what it was. So, take a chicken. Add rabid, drooling fangs. Put it on the side of a boy. Then the boy, instead of pants, has FEATHERS, and has chicken feet. Now, add chicken pox to both parts – The chicken and the boy – and then add an intimidating grin to the boy, and give him a cup of itching powder for good measure, and you have a pretty good idea what Cock-A-Doodle looked like.

"How do you educate this guy so much?" joked Cock-A-Doodle to the intense, searing eyes.

Do not joke around. This time, the eyes spoke in Cock-A-Doodle's head, as to make sure Pantalus wouldn't tease his brother.

"Awe... come on!" said Cock (That is what I shall call him to avoid having to type Cock-A-Doodle a whole lot of times today,

DAD WAS HERE!

that would be boring and a waste of time.). "That's no fair!" He stomped his foot on the ground. He chanted a mysterious chant in another language, shook his itching powder three times, and his work was done.

Imagine eyes with chicken pox! I hope you know how this looks, because that's what the eyes looked like now. And boy, were they infuriated!

The eyes concentrated on Cock. Cock, realizing his big mistake, put his hands up in protest, but the eyes had an anger problem. "It is too late for that now." And Cock was shot back with a bolt of invisible force, crumpling into a heap on the floor near the wall.

The joy of Pantalus did not last for long, for in came someone he had not seen for several hundred years: His mother, Sica.

Imagine a green blob of boogers and germs and fungus and algae. Now imagine a bloodshot eye, a watery eye, a bloody nose, a runny nose, a drooling mouth, a toothless mouth, and a cavity-filled mouth stuck on in different directions. You have imagined Sica.

Her voice was blurry, and a bit clumsy, but it was also intense, a strange match. It came out of the drooling mouth: "Boy, what have you done to dear Cocky?" She stared at him with her bloodshot eye.

"Uh..." moaned Cock.

"Uh..." said Pantalus, getting the idea. Cock had a plan, and whenever Cock had plans, no matter how insane they were, they sure WORKED!

"I didn't do it," whispered Cock.

"I didn't do it," said Pantalus.

"Great-great-Great-gramma Tanya did!" whispered Cock.

"Great Great Great Gramma Tanya did!" insisted Pantalus to his mother Sica.

Sica turned to the eyes, now known as Tanya. She growled out of her toothless mouth, and drooled a lot more out of her drooling mouth. She said with her cavity mouth: "Tanya, you already have chicken pox. Do you want to catch the plague? Or become infested with germs? I'm sure Pantalus and I could to that for you..."

Tanya looked at them with her eyes. But it was not an intense look. It was not intimidating, either. Was it... Fear, perhaps? Or intense pain?

Finally, using internal willpower, she broke free of the trance. "ZERO!" she yelled, in a cold, feirce voice. "How COULD you do this to me, you brainless servant?"

Tanya spluttered, and mucus came flying out. "I didn't!" said an elfish, mischeivous, and loyal voice (an odd combination, if you ask me, but then again she is rather odd). "Sica did it!" Zero came in. Her whole body was made of numbers, and divisions, and fractions, and she wobbled in on foots of ones. She put her hands behind her back as she jumped up in the air gleefully. Oh, how she loved seeing Sica get punished fully by Tanya!

"Well, who cares?" spluttered Tanya.

You brainless lump, I'll get even with you liar, Zero, you elfish servant you! But now I've got better things to do with my TIME! No go. Go to the Sands of Euro. Create a Zero Portal. Just get there , and bring me back my Rising subjects!

Zero nodded and scurried out the door.

The time has arrived, Tanya told the group, To rise from the dead and lost, the two great rulers of evil, Chaos and Death themselves, Sorenson and Tantalus!

The group jeered and cheered as they jumped for joy in the air. Not Pantalus, though; he was rather nervous. Just Cock, Sica, and Tanya (though how a pair of eyes, or a glob of green icky stuff, can jump in the air is besides the point (in other words, I don't know!)).

And Zero scurried back in again, carrying a big pit, filled with lava, bones, skin, and organs, as well as a skull staff, a deadly red stone, and a scroll of papyrus.

"Yes, Lord Tanya?"

"Deliver the stuff."

Zero picked up the skull staff.

"Tantalus, Mighty Lord of Chaos, you have fallen, and have been scattered, not to be seen for several millenia. But now, thanks to the Mighy Tanya, Lord of Internal Willpower, Force, and Magic (magic too because Force + Internal Willpower = Magic), you shall rise again, and once again wreak havok over the universe!"

And in came a boy and a girl. Each wore an eskimo suit. "We want to stop somebody named Tanya! Where is she?" asked the girl.

"Yeah!" insisted the boy.

"What are your orders, Lord Tanya?" asked Zero, rubbing his long-division claws together.

"Hang them upside-down over the pit. Let them watch the Lords rise. Then ask The Mighty Lords!"

"Yes ma'am!"

Zero hung them upside down over the pot and resumed to his work.

He picked up the stone. "Mighty Fire Stone, you are here for a mighty purpose. You shall bring back the Lord of Death, the beloved Sorenson!" He dropped the staff and the stone into the pot.

"No!" moaned the girl.

"You can't do this to us!" screamed the boy.

Yes I can, fools, Tanya told the kids.

Zero picked up the final object, the scroll, and placed it into the pot. "Rise, oh great ones!"

And out came the most deadly and dangerous things of all mankind...

Chapter One: The Picture in the Hallway